Tommy Hilfiger Talks About Racist Rumors Hurting His Hip Hop Following

Famed fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger recently released his autography, American Dreamer: My Life in Fashion and Business. In the literary work, he decided to speak on the racist rumors that affected his hip hop following. 

Back in the 1990s, rumors swirled that Hilfiger disliked the fact that many rappers were wearing his clothing. It was said that during an interview on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the designer said “If I’d known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and Asians would buy my clothes, I would not have made them so nice. I wish these people would not buy my clothes, as they are made for upper class white people.” 

However, Hilfiger affirms in his new book that he never said this. He also admitted that he felt the best way to deal with the rumors would be to ignore them. But, that only made things worse.

“I thought it was nonsense, and that anyone who read it would know it was slander,” Hilfiger writes. “For one thing, I’d never said, thought, or felt anything remotely so repugnant. For another, I’d never appeared on Oprah. ‘If I just ignore this,’ I figured, ‘It’ll go away.’ The opposite happened.” 

Hilfiger even hired private investigators to find out who made this rumor up, but to no avail. Luckily, the Tommy Hilfiger brand continued to boom throughout the years, and is even beginning to make a minor comeback in the urban community. That just goes to show you that you can't believe everything you hear with zero proof to back it up.

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