Tommy Hilfiger used to dress rap stars so they would “look rich”.
The 71-year-old designer was known for his preppy clothing in the late 1990s and decided to gift rapper Grand Puba thousands of dollars’ worth of clothes when he mentioned him on a track, which led to the demand for his fashion to be worn in the music industry, especially after late R and B star Aaliyah – who died at the age of 22 in a 2001 plane crash – took part in a photoshoot for his jeans and Snoop Dogg wore a rugby shirt on Saturday Night Live.
He said: “The clothes were very inspired by yachting, prep schools, Ivy League and New England, where more aristocratic privileged Americans lived and summered in Cape Cod, Nantucket and the Hamptons.
“It was actually Russell Simmons, who really is one of the godfathers of hip hop, who said to me that young street kids and rappers wanted to wear the clothes because they wanted to look rich.”
The famed designer went on to add that rappers suddenly wanted “everything oversized” and the hybrid between the sports world and the music world became the “perfect storm” as he recalled working with tragic rapper Tupac – who was shot dead in 1996 – as well as I'll Be Missing You singer Puffy Daddy.
He told The Guardian newspaper: “I love sports and wanted to be sporting. So then I started doing big logos. But they wanted everything way, way oversized, because they were buying sizes that were way too large. And so I started just making oversized, and it was a perfect storm. I was dressing Puff Daddy for his tours. I was dressing Biggie Smalls. I was dressing Tupac!”