Yes, Tommy Hilfiger Is a Real Person

Tommy Hilfiger has been in the news this week — not for his work with Kith, Zendaya or Gigi Hadid for that matter — but for being a real person. Yes, you read that right.

The Internet was seemingly stunned after finding out Hilfiger is indeed a real designer and very much alive. On Wednesday, stylist Law Roach posted the TikTok “I’m Busy” prank call challenge, where he FaceTimed clients Tiffany Haddish, Tom Holland, Kerry Washington and friend and collaborator Tommy Hilfiger. The clip has 1.3 million views so far.

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Comments were immediately flooded with viewers shocked to find that Hilfiger was not just a brand name.

“I literally thought Tommy Hilfiger was from the 1800s,” one user wrote. “Wait is Gucci a human too,” another posted.

Hilfiger has been a good sport since the video came out, telling FN, “It’s true — I am in fact a real person! Thank you to Law Roach for helping spread the news!”

Not only does Hilfiger actually exist, but he’s still very much involved in his namesake company, which he started in 1985 (not the 1800s.) The label has been owned by PVH Corp. since 2010 and its shoe business is licensed to Marc Fisher Footwear.

In recent years, Hilfiger has continued his long history of teaming up with rising talent. He launched a successful collaboration with Hadid in 2016 and the seasons following, for instance, as well as with Zendaya, with whom he worked on collections for spring ’19 and fall ’19 (and is how he and Roach forged a friendship.) And through the decades, he has worked with nearly every big name — from musicians Snoop Dogg, Aaliyah and Britney Spears to top models such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss.

“Twenty years ago, Destiny’s Child performed for us at a Macy’s fashion show,” Hilfiger told FN in our 2018 cover story. “The girls were performing onstage, and I turned to my brother, Andy, and said: ‘Who’s the one in the middle? She’s going to be a star.’ Beyoncé was 16.”

He added, “We look at everything and everyone, and think about how to move the needle forward. If that means doing a collab with someone who is doing something breakthrough and new, we consider it. But we have to like what they are doing or what kind of people they are.”

In 2019, Hilfiger received FN’s Collaborator of the Year Award.

Most recently, Hilfiger and Hamilton, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One World Drivers’ Champion, partnered for their fifth collab, launching a collection for fall ’20 that features recycled materials.

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