ATLstatus.com

This past weekend Tommy Hilfiger made a special appearance at the Macy's store up at Lenox Square Mall. Tommy was there promoting and selling copies of his book Iconic America and signing autographs for hundreds of fans. His appearance coincided with Macy's 150th anniversary as a department store. It was a large turn out but one thing I noticed was there was hardly any people of color in the crowd. I thought it was rather funny because I remember when wearing Tommy Hifiger was staple in hip hop culture. In the early nineties Hip Hop artists such as Grand Puba and Q-tip not only mentioned Tommy in their lyrics, they were also sporting it as well. Back in 1994 I recall when Snoop Dogg perfomed on Saturday Night Live dressed from head to toe in Tommy Hilfiger exposing it to a national audience. That same year Tommy Hilfiger sales skyrocketed to over 90 million dollar in gross revenue. I'm sure yall have heard the rumors about Tommy not wanting to be associated with Hip Hop culture and selling his clothes at an astronomically high price so that people of color couldn't afford them. I dont know if this is true but I do know that the upstart of more urban clothing companies such as Phat Farm, Rocawear, and Sean Jean have caused Tommy lose his edge with the urban audience. Tommy Hilfiger had to close many of his specialty stores and his sales at department stores are half of what they were five years ago. Tommy maybe be still doing well (by the average person's standards), but it's crazy to see the how the lack of urban influence has greatly affected his sales. If Nelly is making millions in selling Apple Bottom jeans then other brothers can come up the same way. Tommy sorta paved the way.