American Dreamer: My Life in Fashion & Business
by Tommy Hilfiger and Peter Knobler
Ballantine Books | November 2016 | ISBN-10: 1101886218 | ePUB | 18.7 mb
https://www.amazon.com/American-Dreamer-Life-Fashion-Business/dp/1101886218

In this tale of grit and glamour, setbacks and comebacks, business and pop culture icon Tommy Hilfiger shares his extraordinary life story for the first time.
Few designers have stayed on top of changing trends the way Tommy Hilfiger has. Fewer still have left such an indelible mark on global culture. Since designing his first collection of "classics with a twist" three decades ago, Tommy Hilfiger has been synonymous with all-American style-but his destiny wasn't always so clear. Growing up one of nine children in a working-class family in Elmira, New York, Tommy suffered from dyslexia, flunked sophomore year of high school, and found himself constantly at odds with his father. Nevertheless, this self-described dreamer had a vision and the relentless will to make it a reality. At eighteen he opened his own clothing store, parlaying his uncanny instinct for style into a budding career as a fashion designer. Through decades of triumph and turmoil, Tommy remained doggedly optimistic. To this day, his approach to commerce is rooted in his positive view of the world.
American Dreamer brims with anecdotes that cover Tommy's years as a club kid and scrappy entrepreneur in 1970s New York as well as unique insights into the exclusive A-list personalities with whom he's collaborated and interacted, from Mick Jagger and David Bowie to Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. But this is more than just a fashion icon's memoir-it's a road map for building a brand, both professionally and personally. Tommy takes us behind the scenes of every decision-and every mistake-he's ever made, offering advice on leadership, business, team-building, and creativity.
This is the story of a true American original, told for the first time in his own words, with honesty, humor, and the insatiable appetite for life and style that proves that sometimes you have to dream big to make it big.

About the Author
Tommy Hilfiger is known for classic, all-American style that melds pop culture and the preppy East Coast lifestyle. Raised in Elmira, New York, the second of nine children, he opened a clothing store with $150 in 1969 while still in high school. Hilfiger launched his namesake fashion label in 1985, and the brand quickly expanded to include womenswear, Hilfiger Denim, kidswear, accessories, fragrance, and homeware. Hilfiger is based in New York City and Greenwich, Connecticut, and has five children and two stepchildren with his wife, Dee.
Peter Knobler has collaborated on several bestsellers, including Sumner Redstone’s A Passion to Win and Mary Matalin and James Carville’s All’s Fair. He has written books with NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, New York City mayor David Dinkins, and Texas governor Ann Richards, among others. Knobler is the former editor in chief of Crawdaddy, “the first magazine to take rock music seriously” (The New York Times). He lives in New York City.

CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Foreword
Chapter One: Imagine
Chapter Two: Uniforms
Chapter Three: People’s Place
Chapter Four: Making It
Chapter Five: From Chapter 1 to Chapter 11
Chapter Six: 20th Century Survival
Chapter Seven: Growing Pains
Chapter Eight: No One Is an Inventor in the Fashion Business
Chapter Nine: Hangman
Chapter Ten: Putting the Band Together
Chapter Eleven: Bigger and Better
Chapter Twelve: The Kids Are Alright
Chapter Thirteen: The High Life
Chapter Fourteen: Sons and Daughters
Chapter Fifteen: Rock Style
Chapter Sixteen: Hip-Hop Comes to Hilfiger
Chapter Seventeen: The Rumor
Chapter Eighteen: Star Branding
Chapter Nineteen: The Band’s Breaking Up
Chapter Twenty: We Are Family
Chapter Twenty-one: Going Private in Public
Chapter Twenty-two: Boardroom Bloodbath
Chapter Twenty-three: Turnaround
Photo Insert
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Illustrations Credits
About the Authors