Tommy Hilfiger is an American fashion designer known for his signature red, white, and blue tag. He has launched men’s and women’s clothing lines, fragrances, sportswear, home furnishings, and denim.

Born to an Irish Catholic family in Elmira, New York, Hilfiger grew up as one of nine children. Hilfiger started his first clothing business during his senior year of high school in a small shop he called “The People’s Place.”

He has become one of the wealthiest designers in the market, catering to the needs of hip-hop artists and other music industry giants. No other American designer of his time managed to prominently put their name and logo on clothes the way he did.

Hilfiger has written two books: All American: A Style Book, published in 1997, and Rock Style: How Fashion Moves to Music, published in 1999. The latter accompanied a major exhibit of the same name at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Hilfiger supports several charities, including Race to Erase MS, which focuses on finding a cure for MS; City of Hope, a hospital providing cancer treatment and research; the American Jewish Committee; and the Fresh Air Fund, to which he donated $2.5 million in 1999 to renovate Camp Pioneer in Fishkill, NY.