Tommy Hilfiger gives boost to LFW with casting tour de force

Sometimes it takes a guest designer to show the home brigade ‘how it’s done.’ Tommy Hilfger on Monday raised the stakes for British catwalk designers, with a tour de force of models and familiar faces spanning age, race, size and gender diversity.

Naomi Campbell opened the show, which was held at London’s Tate Modern, wearing not her usual ensemble of high octane glamour, but a yellow and grey reflective tracksuit. Campbell was the first of a glorious casting that featured a plethora of 90s fashion heroines, including Jodie Kidd, Erin O’Connor, Karen Elson and Yasmin Le Bon. A mix of supermodels past, present and future, which also saw Luka Sabbat, Parris Goebel and Halima Aden.

Some came out of retirement, some were likely to be found on Mr Hilfiger’s speed dial, an industry stalwart who has grown with the times to make the brand a digital success story.

Tommy Hillfiger x Lewis Hamilton

This was Hilfiger’s fourth collection with Lewis Hamilton, which this season included a collaboration with R&B singer Gabriella Wilson from H.E.R. Hilfiger’s preppy Americana casualwear has been sliced, remixed and rebooted a million times, but it’s a formula that works: the Oxford stripes, oversized bermuda’s, and plenty of red, white and blue.

Hilfiger knows what resonates, and according to the show notes three quarters of the collection was made via sustainable production methods, like denim washed using less water.

Smaller brands often point fingers at the fashion behemoths for not being sufficiently sustainable or transparent. But we mustn’t forget these behemoths, including Tommy Hilfiger, have far more complicated supply chains and manufacturing processes. Hilfiger, the brand, has done well with social listening and marketing in a millennial climate.

Image: Front row at TommyNow, London via Tommy Hilfiger Facebook