Tommy Hilfiger heading back to Pitti this June

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
May 16, 2017

Tommy Hilfiger is heading back to Pitti this June, underlining the attraction that the giant Florentine menswear salon holds for major international fashion brands. Hilfiger in person will present the house’s Spring 2018 Hilfiger Edition collection to retailers, press, industry guests, VIPs and the general public at the 92nd Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence, from June 13 to 16, 2017.

 
“Our presentation at Pitti showed our commitment to digital selling and innovation, and we are excited to return for a second season with another innovative one-of-a-kind installation,” said the American designer.
 
Back then, Hilfiger rewrote the rule books of fashion presentations with a two-hour, multi-media presentation inside Palazzo Corsini with life models, celebrity stars, giant LED columns and a display of Tommy Touch, an in-store digital shopping fixture that displayed a variety of sizes and colors for some of the brand’s more popular basics. VIP guests included Lucky Blue Smith, Rafferty Law, Gabriel Kane Lewis, Presley Gerber and Tommy’s stepson Julian Ocleppo.

This June, Hilfiger will install unique digital sales platforms, visual merchandising fixtures and an innovative Digital Showroom for four days inside Fortezza Da Basso, the medieval fortress that is the nerve center of Pitti – the world’s leading fashion trade show.
 
“Today, we continue to enjoy great momentum in our menswear business, and Pitti is the perfect platform to present our Hilfiger Edition offering,” added Hilfiger, whose fashion house is now owned by PVH Corp, which also controls Calvin Klein and a share in the house of Karl Lagerfeld. His decision to return to Pitti means that Hilfiger will not stage a menswear runway show in London or New York during their respective runway seasons in June.
 
Hilfiger Edition focuses on the brand’s menswear heritage - classical looks executed with premium fabrics and luxe details.  His Hilfiger Edition collection presentation will also include a People’s Place bar setting to complement the digital installation. It is named after the first store opened by a teenage Hilfiger in 1969 in his hometown, the upstate New York city of Elmira, the summer home of Mark Twain. People’s Place is designed to be a “curated social hangout” where guests can come together to discuss the collection and enjoy engaging customization experiences.
 
The project is the latest path-breaking idea of Hilfiger to radically overhaul runway shows; most notably with his See Now Buy Now events starring Gigi Hadid where the model participates in the collection design and the clothes start retailing online the instant they hit the catwalk.