Born in 1951, Tommy Hilfiger made his first foray into fashion as a purveyor of hippy chic to New York campus kids in 1969. Building on the success of his first shop, People's Place, Hilfiger had established a chain of 10 speciality stores in upstate New York by the age of 26. During the Seventies, he turned to designing and for a period worked for Jordache before launching his own label in 1985.