LF USA: Week 2

Hey,

Hope everyone had a lovely Father's Day weekend! While I was originally going to tell you a bit more about production and post a few cute examples of old sketches and tech packs, our LF USA Summer Internship Speaker Series guest inspired me to hold that topic off for a more boring week blog entry. Here goes:

Last Friday our entire Intern class had the pleasure of meeting Tommy Hilfiger (I don't think I need to introduce him here... as in the clothes?). Mr. Hilfiger has recently went into a partnership with Li & Fung, working on a global music merchandising company, MESH - Music Entertainment Sports Holdings. The venture will develop, market and distribute diversified collections from musical artists ranging from the Steven Tyler (who recently announced the partnership), to J.Lo and Marc Anthony (faces of the company's first deal for a fashion lifestyle launching at Kohl's this Fall). The concept is very exciting and unique, and certainly something Mr. Hilfiger is passionate about as it combines his two favorite things - music and fashion. His company is expected to collaborate with Bravado, a division of Universal Music Group, to merchandise and manufacture products such as capsule collections, licensing deals, and exclusives - especially out of Macy's. Needless to say, I am extremely jealous of those lucky few interns who were placed in the MESH division at LF, like one of my teammates who is currently working to help launch the new Rachel Zoe line (!!).

Besides his relationship to LF, Mr. Hilfiger shared with us his inspirational beginnings story and advised all designers in the room to embrace the business side of the industry, as that has been crucial to his own success. He also elaborated on his new marketing campaign, focusing on a cool, diverse family, "the Hilfigers." The whole concept is really effective in appealing to various demographics, while simultaneously elevating TH's appeal and developing positive associations to the brand. Check out the commercial below, and if you have time to kill, browse through the "Meet the Hilfigers" sections of tommy.com - they all have names, back-stories, and as expected, they're all super-hot and super-preppy...

Next week is our company picnic, celebrating the 105th anniversary of Li & Fung, so I will be sure to let you know all about it, and maybe I will finally get to my day-to-day activities in production.

xx,

Marlena