Onboard a local passenger ferry you will usually find a mixture of tourists and tired commuters. However, on Sunday night, a former Staten Island ferry, moored in New York’s lower Manhattan, welcomed A-listers, sports stars and hip-hop heroes as Tommy Hilfiger took over the vessel to unveil his latest collection. For a label devised in the Big Apple, the choice of venue that boasted views of the city’s skyline including notable NY landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge, could not have been more fitting.
It also served as a signifier of Hilfiger’s power. Not many designers could get the K-pop band Stray Kids, Vogue’s Anna Wintour, Blackpink’s Jisoo, the track and field Olympian Gabby Thomas and three members of the Wu-Tang Clan to cross the gangway of a decommissioned and tired-looking ferry boat from the 1960s. The original interior of the MV John F Kennedy, all teal coloured walls and brown wooden benches, was left intact but life rings were emblazoned with Tommy Hilfiger.
Deckhands dressed in smart white polo shirts handed out boxes of caramel popcorn and bottles of ice-cold Diet Coke as a 500-strong crowd took to the top deck. Hilfiger described the collection as “the new American prep wardrobe”. The opening look featuring low-slung grey check trousers, a red check shirt and baggy white blazer, set the tone.
This is a brand rooted in maritime. The red, white and blue logo that Hilfiger created in 1985 riffs on the semaphore flag system. His first show almost 4.