A label built on red, white and blue Americana carries a Swiss name in disguise. Wikipedia says the designer's paternal ancestors came from Safenwil, in the Swiss canton of Aargau. The family name was Hilfiker, and it was Americanized to Hilfiger after they emigrated.
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger was born on March 24, 1951, in Elmira, New York, the second of nine children. His father, Richard, was a watchmaker and his mother, Virginia, a nurse. His mother's side was of Irish descent.
His first business was not a label at all. With $150 of savings he opened People's Place, a clothing and record shop in downtown Elmira. Wikipedia's biography dates it to 1971, while its company article says his fashion career began in 1968. The business went bankrupt in 1977.
The brand came from a backer. Mohan Murjani, an Indian textile businessman who held the Gloria Vanderbilt jeans and Coca-Cola clothing licenses, approached Hilfiger in 1984. The Tommy Hilfiger company was founded in 1985 with support from the Murjani Group.
Then came the stunt that made the name famous before the clothes were. The adman George Lois designed a Times Square billboard for the launch. Encyclopedia.com quotes it as naming "The 4 Great American Designers for Men." It listed them only by initials: R.L., P.E., C.K. and T.H.
Hilfiger's name did not appear in full. The board showed the initials, his flag logo and the address of his new store. Critics called his self-promotion presumptuous and tasteless. Writing in 1990, the fashion journalist Ruth La Ferla said Hilfiger had achieved "a degree of fame, or notoriety." Encyclopedia.com notes that some sources date the billboard to 1986 rather than 1985.
Even the logo spells out the surname. Wikipedia says the red and white fields at its center are inspired by the International Code of Signals flag for the letter H.
The name has stayed attached to a widening family of lines, including Hilfiger Denim and Hilfiger Collection. In March 2010 PVH, then called Phillips-Van Heusen, bought the company for about $3 billion. A name that once appeared only as two initials on a billboard is now one of the best-known surnames in menswear.