Tommy Hilfiger has been breaking the rules his whole life. So it's no surprise he's revolutionizing fashion by gearing up to sell clothes straight from the catwalk at the click of a perfectly manicured finger.
The 64-year-old dapper American designer, effortlessly charming with a precise attention to detail has turned his eye for style into a multi-billion-dollar brand sold in more than 90 countries worldwide. One of the first to master the art of celebrity endorsement in the fashion industry, he learned from mentor Andy Warhol to marry fashion, art, music and entertainment or F.A.M.E as he likes to spell it out. But he's going a step further, again, by planning to do away with the customary six-month lag between a collection debuting on the runway and the clothes being available to buy in stores. Instagram and Twitter have blown the calendar out of the water, as a new generation of bloggers zap images from the catwalk across the planet in seconds.
"There is now a new need for immediate gratification," Hilfiger told AFP at his palatial Chelsea studios overlooking the Hudson River and streaming with sunlight. "The younger customer does not want to wait any longer, they want to see it and wear it that day or the next day. So we're going to change the rules," he explained. "We're going to allow the consumer to click and buy." In the fashion world, perhaps more than any other industry, not setting the trend can be fatal. New York designer Rebecca Minkoff introduced click and buy on the catwalk this weekend. Burberry and Tom Ford also follow suit in September, but Hilfiger's participation will take it to another level. The Tommy Hilfiger company clocked up sales of $6.7 billion in 2014.
