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Tommy Hilfiger, born Thomas Jacob Hilfiger is the second of nine children of a jeweller and an Irish-American nurse. He grew up in a German-Swiss/Irish-American family. Before the dreams of becoming a multi-million selling fashion designer, Hilfiger’s parents wanted him to become an engineer. He was born in Elmira, New York in 1951.

Rather than furthering his education, he started to work in retail at the age of 18. Hilfiger would go to New York City to buy jeans and bell-bottom pants, which he customized and resold at Brown's, a local downtown Elmira store. Tommy decided to open up his own store and try and make a living customised clothing. He named this store; The Peoples Place. Unfortunately after a number of stores around the same area started closing down because shopping traffic to the new Arnot Mall in New York, The peoples Place went bankrupt and the 25 year old Tommy Hilfiger was left with nothing. The site of the original store has since been demolished to make room for First Arena, home of the Elmira Jackals Hockey team.

Hilfiger decided to move to New York City with his wife Susie, he was offered design assistant positions with huge name designers such as Calvin Klein and Perry Ellis, but turned them down despite the fact he was broke. Tommy Hilfiger was determined to make it on his own.

Finally his luck turned when in 1984 he founded the Tommy Hilfiger Corporation with support from The Murjani Group, which went public in 1992, introducing his signature menswear collection.

Today the growing Hilfiger fashion empire, supplemented by fragrances and other merchandising spin-offs, is worth more than $400 million (£240m) a year. Meanwhile Hilfiger is known to spend much of his spare time and money on the Caribbean island of Mustique. Hilfiger has four children with his ex-wife, Susie: Alexandria also known as, Ally, Richard, Elizabeth, and Kathleen. His daughter Ally was featured in the 2003 MTV reality show “Rich Girls“, and his son, Rich, was signed to Warner Bros. Records.