Latest / The Breakfast Club / DM Me with Doug Melville: The Architect of 90's Hip-Hop Fashion - How Andy Hilfiger Combined Music & Fashion with Snoop, Aaliyah and More
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to dm Me with Doug Melville, a self help
- 0:08Speaker 1: podcast that brings practical advice directly to you in a
- 0:12Speaker 1: relatable and experienced voice. I'm your host, Doug Melville, and
- 0:17Speaker 1: every week I'll be serving up advice and insight, do
- 0:20Speaker 1: guest interviews, detail breakdowns of issues of the day, and
- 0:24Speaker 1: by answering questioners from listeners just like you. If you
- 0:28Speaker 1: want to DM me, just go to Instagram and at
- 0:31Speaker 1: me at Doug Melville. Joining us today is Andrew Charles Hillfiger,
- 0:36Speaker 1: an American businessman in the fashion industry and a musician.
- 0:40Speaker 1: He currently sits as the creative director and namesake of
- 0:43Speaker 1: Andrew Charles, his rock and roll inspired fashion line. On
- 0:47Speaker 1: the fashion side. Andy's first job was at twelve years old,
- 0:51Speaker 1: when he began selling Jeanes with his brother Tommy in
- 0:54Speaker 1: a store in Elmira, New York. Andy's other love is music,
- 0:59Speaker 1: where he's been playing bass guitar since he was a teen.
- 1:02Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty two, Andy moved to Manhattan from upstate
- 1:05Speaker 1: New York, where he pursued his passion for music, touring
- 1:09Speaker 1: with members of the Ramones, Kid Rock, and the Blue
- 1:12Speaker 1: Oyster Cult. In the nineties. Andy was divisioned behind Tommy Jeans,
- 1:18Speaker 1: a division of the Tommy Hillfigure Corporation, where he mixed
- 1:22Speaker 1: music and fashion together at scale and helped change a
- 1:26Speaker 1: generation from Grand Pooba to the iconic Aliya to Usher
- 1:31Speaker 1: to Snoop Dog on SNL. He has styled in dressed
- 1:34Speaker 1: some of Hollywood's largest movie stars, rock and pop musicians.
- 1:40Speaker 1: After a decade of work at Tommy, Andy started a
- 1:42Speaker 1: new company called sweet Face Fashions, playing a major role
- 1:47Speaker 1: in the launch of j LO by Jennifer Lopez and
- 1:50Speaker 1: helping build the Glow by j Lo perfume business, which
- 1:54Speaker 1: ultimately went on to gross over two hundred and fifty
- 1:56Speaker 1: million dollars in sales. He then moved on to Create
- 1:59Speaker 1: Stars along with his brother Tommy and others to help
- 2:03Speaker 1: support the build out and creation of celebrity fashion partnerships
- 2:07Speaker 1: all across the world. It was this that inspired him
- 2:11Speaker 1: to start Andrew Charles, his own fashion line. Ladies and Gentlemen,
- 2:15Speaker 1: Let's give it up for Andy Hill Figure. Yay, there's
- 2:20Speaker 1: no one here but me, and you do no one
- 2:25Speaker 1: here but me.
- 2:27Speaker 2: I'm great. I'm in our pop up shop, the underground
- 2:32Speaker 2: fashion outlet. We're not open for a couple of weeks
- 2:37Speaker 2: and it's a little cold in here, but a lot
- 2:40Speaker 2: of cool stuff. I'm getting ready to do another pop
- 2:45Speaker 2: up shop in Almira where the people's place, first location,
- 2:51Speaker 2: and excited about that. So I'm here gathering product to
- 2:58Speaker 2: take it upstate.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Okay, So tell me what happens there, Tell me what
- 3:03Speaker 1: happens in your mind these days. We'll go back into
- 3:06Speaker 1: the history. But as you sit there in that room,
- 3:09Speaker 1: is it really about you know, looks, or is it
- 3:13Speaker 1: about reselling history or is it about fatally what kind
- 3:17Speaker 1: of inspires you to sit in that room.
- 3:20Speaker 2: Well, right now I'm getting ready to do a five
- 3:24Speaker 2: day pop up. It's like underground fashion outly UFO were
- 3:29Speaker 2: like a traveling It's like a band. We load up,
- 3:34Speaker 2: we go to locations, we have an event for four
- 3:37Speaker 2: or five days or and so right now I'm curating
- 3:42Speaker 2: what to bring because I can't bring everything, and I
- 3:46Speaker 2: have a mix. To your question, it's a mix. It's
- 3:51Speaker 2: definitely some iconic pieces. I'll always bring some like j
- 3:56Speaker 2: Tho's jumpsuit, her own stuff, Keith Richards Leopard. I'll always
- 4:02Speaker 2: bring a lot of cool archives, but I have vintage.
- 4:08Speaker 2: I have all the Andrew Charles stuff. I have some Tommy,
- 4:13Speaker 2: I have rock and roll. What else do we have?
- 4:18Speaker 2: We have some Ed Hardy. Now we have some cool stuff.
- 4:21Speaker 2: So it's a very cool vibe. But the whole thing
- 4:25Speaker 2: with the store, it's not just like going in some
- 4:28Speaker 2: store and whatever. It's a shopping experience. There's stories behind
- 4:34Speaker 2: a lot of the products. There's music. We're going to
- 4:37Speaker 2: play a show in the evening at the same venue,
- 4:40Speaker 2: which is now a hockey arena. So I'm curating the
- 4:45Speaker 2: whole week and real excited about it. It's just it
- 4:50Speaker 2: gets stressful towards the end because you never know if
- 4:54Speaker 2: you have enough, too little, what kind of stuff? It's
- 4:58Speaker 2: still cold out spring is coming, so do I bring
- 5:02Speaker 2: out a wear? Do you know? It's that's but it's
- 5:06Speaker 2: all fun. It's just being around clothing in music. Is
- 5:10Speaker 2: what else you're gonna do? Yeah?
- 5:12Speaker 1: No, it's like your DNA And you know, while many
- 5:15Speaker 1: people listening. Mate, you know know your brother Tommy, you
- 5:18Speaker 1: have really been the mind, particularly around Tommy Jeans. But
- 5:21Speaker 1: you guys, are you know, partners in crime in this life?
- 5:26Speaker 1: I think the first question I would ask you is,
- 5:28Speaker 1: you know, how is it working with family? You know,
- 5:31Speaker 1: I think a lot of times people, you know, just
- 5:33Speaker 1: when they're starting out or they have an idea, they go, oh,
- 5:37Speaker 1: you know, I would ever work with my family, or
- 5:40Speaker 1: I cannot work with my family. But you were able
- 5:43Speaker 1: to pull it off.
- 5:45Speaker 2: Well. Listen. Working for Tommy was is and was great
- 5:53Speaker 2: because it's all about ideas. With him, he's always looking
- 5:56Speaker 2: forward and coming up with the ideas. And like the
- 6:01Speaker 2: Boss Tour, we took all the celebrities Aliah, He's like, Andy,
- 6:05Speaker 2: why don't you do like you're going on tour like
- 6:08Speaker 2: the band and go to all the stores all over
- 6:11Speaker 2: the United States. And so I took that and we
- 6:15Speaker 2: rented the buses and we put the advertising and the
- 6:19Speaker 2: celebrities and the music and we went on the road.
- 6:25Speaker 2: You know, Tommy's different. I'm one of nine kids. So
- 6:30Speaker 2: and when we were working all at the People's Place,
- 6:33Speaker 2: Tommy's first store, it was just learning the business. You know,
- 6:38Speaker 2: the jeans would come in, you'd size them, you price them,
- 6:42Speaker 2: and you kind of learned in retail. And Tommy taught
- 6:47Speaker 2: us a lot. And also Betsy worked there, Jinny, Billy,
- 6:53Speaker 2: everybody kind of worked there at the People's Place. But
- 6:56Speaker 2: then Billy and I went to New York with Tommy,
- 7:00Speaker 2: but Tommy went to do his Tommy Hill figure stuff
- 7:05Speaker 2: and Billy and I were in the bands. But how
- 7:09Speaker 2: that always came together was Tommy loved rock and roll,
- 7:17Speaker 2: loves rock and roll and music and everything, and he'd
- 7:21Speaker 2: always want to dress us in cool clothes. So we'd
- 7:24Speaker 2: go to New York City and buy like stuff and
- 7:28Speaker 2: wear it on stage. And so I started like dressing
- 7:34Speaker 2: a couple of celebrities here and there. But then it
- 7:37Speaker 2: really became a big thing for me. Because when I
- 7:40Speaker 2: first went to Tommy Hill Figure Court, that was nineteen
- 7:44Speaker 2: ninety one, and it was really to work on the
- 7:47Speaker 2: Formula one stuff. That was my first thing. But then,
- 7:51Speaker 2: like you know, two weeks later, Tommy is saying, hey,
- 7:54Speaker 2: should we sponsor Pete Townsend and the who. I'm like yeah,
- 7:58Speaker 2: And then we just got into this whole thing. But
- 8:03Speaker 2: I went to Hong Kong to work on the uniforms
- 8:06Speaker 2: for Lotus, and on our way back from Hong Kong,
- 8:12Speaker 2: Tommy met me over there and he made the changes
- 8:15Speaker 2: because I really didn't know what I was doing. I mean,
- 8:18Speaker 2: look at I have a good eye about things, but
- 8:21Speaker 2: I really didn't know what was happening, and he met
- 8:24Speaker 2: me in Hong Kong and made changes to the Lotus line,
- 8:28Speaker 2: brought it back to New York. We took the Red
- 8:30Speaker 2: Eye from La and we ran into Grand Puba and
- 8:33Speaker 2: the Brand Nubians and they were decked out in Tommy
- 8:37Speaker 2: and Polo, and at that time Grand Puba was shouting
- 8:42Speaker 2: Tommy out in his songs. In one with Mary Jay
- 8:45Speaker 2: and was the same. I was like, tom Tommy, that's
- 8:48Speaker 2: who's rapping about. It's all over the radio in the streets,
- 8:52Speaker 2: and I knew about it because I lived uptown and
- 8:57Speaker 2: the kids would tell me, Oh, they're rapping about your
- 8:59Speaker 2: brother in this and that. But also I knew a
- 9:03Speaker 2: lot of hip hop kids because I worked in film
- 9:06Speaker 2: in the eighties and I must have done twenty videos.
- 9:10Speaker 2: I did a movie with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin
- 9:13Speaker 2: called Tougher Than Leather. I was a lightning guy. So
- 9:17Speaker 2: I started bringing clothes to set and Russell was like,
- 9:21Speaker 2: what's that? What's that? And I'm like, that's my brother's line.
- 9:25Speaker 2: But Jay cham Master Jay DJ was like, Yo, your
- 9:30Speaker 2: brother has clothes and I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm
- 9:34Speaker 2: here on the back of a truck putting lights in
- 9:36Speaker 2: and I bring him close and then the rest of
- 9:38Speaker 2: the guys wanted them, and so that kind of started.
- 9:41Speaker 2: But then I went to work for Tommy about a
- 9:44Speaker 2: year or two later, and Russell Simmons called me and said, Andy,
- 9:50Speaker 2: you know, I want to come up and see the showroom.
- 9:54Speaker 2: He didn't remember it was me from the film shoot.
- 9:58Speaker 2: You know, I was just like a pa I was working,
- 10:02Speaker 2: and so I told him. I said, yeah, yeah, we
- 10:05Speaker 2: worked on that movie and yeah, yeah. But anyway, he
- 10:08Speaker 2: came up. I showed him. At this point, Hill Figure
- 10:12Speaker 2: was blowing up and starting to go international and more
- 10:18Speaker 2: product categories, and the stylist started calling Graham Poob and
- 10:24Speaker 2: those guys came up a couple days after the Hong
- 10:26Speaker 2: Kong thing and we saw them at six thirty in
- 10:31Speaker 2: the morning at JFK. They had just done in living color.
- 10:38Speaker 2: But it created a whole new place for me in
- 10:42Speaker 2: the business because, yes, clothing and the whole thing, but
- 10:47Speaker 2: putting music and clothing together, I mean there'd be days
- 10:52Speaker 2: that like, oh, Mary Jay's coming up, she comes up,
- 10:56Speaker 2: Method Man's coming up. A week later, I'm watching a
- 10:59Speaker 2: video and they're in the clothes. I gave them. So
- 11:02Speaker 2: it was a whole new kind of advertising that the
- 11:06Speaker 2: other companies or competition, let's call them, they weren't answering
- 11:13Speaker 2: the phone or you know for music and hip hop.
- 11:18Speaker 2: And the word got around to the stylists and the
- 11:22Speaker 2: artists and the labels. In fact, a rock and roll
- 11:27Speaker 2: guy from Atlantic called me and said, hey, I have
- 11:30Speaker 2: this young girl. He was running A and R or something.
- 11:35Speaker 2: This young girl's here and she loves your brand. You know,
- 11:40Speaker 2: do you want to meet us? She wants to meet
- 11:42Speaker 2: in Alia walks in the door and I'm like, you know,
- 11:46Speaker 2: she was amazing. And that's right when we launched Tommy
- 11:49Speaker 2: Jeans and she wanted a model and she loved the
- 11:53Speaker 2: brand and we loved her. It wasn't about so much money.
- 11:56Speaker 2: It was about chemistry and it was very authentic in
- 12:01Speaker 2: that campaign. You know, that was the Tommy Girl campaign
- 12:04Speaker 2: that blew up. It's still so iconic.
- 12:09Speaker 1: Yeah no, And I think it's very interesting because sometimes
- 12:12Speaker 1: you just see the front of you know, people just
- 12:14Speaker 1: see what they see, but maybe break it down or
- 12:17Speaker 1: maybe just share a little bit about kind of how
- 12:19Speaker 1: that came to be.
- 12:21Speaker 2: It was never really planned. Basically, Billy and I were
- 12:26Speaker 2: playing in cb GB, the Ritz Studio fifty four. We
- 12:34Speaker 2: were playing in bands in all these things, and Tommy
- 12:38Speaker 2: was freelancing. In fact, he worked for Geordash and then
- 12:43Speaker 2: he did the Coca Cola clothes and then launched Tommy
- 12:47Speaker 2: Hillfiger and Billy and I were, you know, we were
- 12:50Speaker 2: downtown playing gigs and Tommy was doing his whole fashion thing,
- 12:57Speaker 2: and Billy and I also worked at Manny's on forty
- 13:00Speaker 2: eighth Street. And one morning I was getting off and
- 13:05Speaker 2: we lived on the Upper Upper West. So one morning
- 13:07Speaker 2: I was getting off the train to go to work
- 13:11Speaker 2: and I saw a billboard in Times Square and it
- 13:16Speaker 2: said the four great American designers are RL for Ralph Lauren,
- 13:22Speaker 2: c K, Kelvin Klein, pe Perry Ellis. Then it said
- 13:26Speaker 2: the newest is THH and it had the flag there.
- 13:30Speaker 2: And I go into work and the owners of Manni's,
- 13:35Speaker 2: the sons Judd Denian, were like, Hey, isn't this your name?
- 13:39Speaker 2: We bought these at Sachs last night. I was like, yeah, yeah,
- 13:42Speaker 2: that's my brother, my brother's line. Then another time I
- 13:46Speaker 2: was working, we were working at Manny's and Tommy came
- 13:49Speaker 2: by and said, I wanted, you know, you want some clothes.
- 13:53Speaker 2: I had mine. I want to show you my show room.
- 13:57Speaker 2: I said, I have to deliver a good guitar case
- 14:01Speaker 2: to the Waldorf. I'll go with you. So Tommy and
- 14:04Speaker 2: I go. Of course, they're like service elevator over there.
- 14:08Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, whatever, who Tommy and drop the
- 14:12Speaker 2: guitar case off. We went over to Yeah, I know,
- 14:17Speaker 2: nothing's changed. We walked over to fourteen eleven Broadway, which
- 14:23Speaker 2: was the is the fashion building in New York City.
- 14:26Speaker 2: It's with the guy with a sewing machine. Anyway, twenty
- 14:30Speaker 2: first floor. We go up. The door opens and there's
- 14:34Speaker 2: a huge, huge sign that said Gloria Vanderbilt. Gloria Vanderbilt
- 14:40Speaker 2: was the genes Amazing company. He said, oh, yeah, that's
- 14:47Speaker 2: my showroom. And it was, you know, like the size
- 14:50Speaker 2: of the store with a little redway Tommy's flag. He said,
- 14:54Speaker 2: we you know, we just shipped and it's going, well
- 14:56Speaker 2: blah blah, here's you know, pick whatever you want. It
- 15:00Speaker 2: really wasn't my style, but boy, I picked some great
- 15:05Speaker 2: stuff that I probably still have today. But a couple
- 15:11Speaker 2: of years later, that was probably in eighty six eighty seven,
- 15:16Speaker 2: and then Billy and I started touring with the guys
- 15:19Speaker 2: from Blue Oyster call Marky Ramone, Richie Stotts. We were
- 15:25Speaker 2: playing in a lot of cool bands, and but we
- 15:28Speaker 2: weren't making, you know, a lot of money. Anyway, I'm
- 15:34Speaker 2: home in nineteen ninety on a Sunday and I'm watching
- 15:39Speaker 2: a Grand Prix. I saw a race car go by
- 15:43Speaker 2: a Lotus and it had the Tommy flag. So I
- 15:46Speaker 2: called him. I'm like, oh, wow, I see that you're
- 15:49Speaker 2: doing the racing. He's like yeah, because his partner, Lawrence
- 15:53Speaker 2: was big involved in Formula one as he is today.
- 15:58Speaker 2: Lawrence owns Aston Martin. But anyway, he said, yeah, you know,
- 16:03Speaker 2: do you want to go to the races and give
- 16:05Speaker 2: away hats and T shirts and backpacks? And I'm like yeah.
- 16:10Speaker 2: He said, you know, we'll pay you to go to
- 16:12Speaker 2: the races and promote our relationship with Formula One. Well,
- 16:18Speaker 2: I would go to the races and give out stuff
- 16:20Speaker 2: and meet people and everything, but then i'd bring this
- 16:23Speaker 2: stuff back in the stylist that say, oh, we're shooting
- 16:26Speaker 2: tri caled Quest next week. Do you have anything? Yeah,
- 16:29Speaker 2: here's some Lotus hill figure. So I took what I
- 16:33Speaker 2: was doing in Formula one and brought that into music
- 16:37Speaker 2: and it became a very hip collection on the streets
- 16:42Speaker 2: and in the stores. We eventually put the Lotus Hill
- 16:45Speaker 2: figure in the stores and I went on the road
- 16:48Speaker 2: with a race car. People saw the car and bought clothes,
- 16:53Speaker 2: So that was another chapter.
- 16:55Speaker 1: So basically how it started was it was just like Proximity.
- 17:01Speaker 1: You had the materials, you knew the musicians, and other
- 17:06Speaker 1: companies really weren't styling hip hop at the time. They
- 17:10Speaker 1: weren't taking the calls, they weren't really engaging with it.
- 17:14Speaker 1: So it was really more of you know, like before
- 17:17Speaker 1: street teams. You were basically just the well we had
- 17:21Speaker 1: in the ground contact.
- 17:22Speaker 2: Peter and Kashawn and the Nisi and Kadada Jones. I mean,
- 17:29Speaker 2: we had we had a hot street team. We'd go
- 17:32Speaker 2: to the clubs with clothes and we'd have great parties
- 17:36Speaker 2: and we had our own street team. Uh, and we
- 17:40Speaker 2: worked with Steve Rifkins Street team and we worked with everybody,
- 17:48Speaker 2: so we were clothing.
- 17:50Speaker 1: And this was all just really your motivation though, right
- 17:53Speaker 1: like this was kind of uh, you know, let's just
- 17:57Speaker 1: find fit in where we get in, you know, just
- 18:00Speaker 1: kind of you know, a little bit of spray and
- 18:02Speaker 1: pray kind of thing you're just kind of just get.
- 18:06Speaker 2: We'd go, we'd go to photos, video shoots, photo shoots
- 18:10Speaker 2: for shopping bags. We'd get there and Lauren Hill and
- 18:14Speaker 2: why Cleft and Praz would be like, oh, shill, what
- 18:18Speaker 2: did you get from me? They ended up on Rolling
- 18:20Speaker 2: cover Rolling Stone and cover of XXL in Snowboard Snowboard
- 18:25Speaker 2: by Tommy Hill. Figure. You know, it was just it
- 18:30Speaker 2: wasn't strategically planned. It was just chemistry. And I love
- 18:37Speaker 2: the clothes. I loved putting them on them. And I
- 18:42Speaker 2: had the first celebrity fashion show in New York City
- 18:46Speaker 2: with hip hop and I had Quincy Jones, Cadata Jones
- 18:50Speaker 2: and I styled it. We had Aliyah, we had SWV,
- 18:54Speaker 2: we had the Wu Tang Clan. Everybody was on the runway,
- 19:00Speaker 2: q Tip Ausher. Aliyah when she was like, you know,
- 19:05Speaker 2: first came to me or even before she did the
- 19:08Speaker 2: Tommy stuff, and that was through me and my team.
- 19:14Speaker 2: It wasn't even a corporate event, but it became like
- 19:20Speaker 2: the coolest thing ever. It was the New Music Cinema Seminar.
- 19:25Speaker 2: And what happened was I don't know, a daughter or
- 19:30Speaker 2: someone said, hey, you know, Vibe and Lea Face Records
- 19:34Speaker 2: is doing a fashion wants to do a fashion show.
- 19:38Speaker 2: And it wasn't like, oh, let me find out, let
- 19:41Speaker 2: me go through meetings. I'm like, let's do it. Boom.
- 19:45Speaker 2: We did it like maybe a week later. That's the
- 19:48Speaker 2: kind of stuff. It was basically gorilla marketing.
- 19:53Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe you could share how this actually I mean,
- 19:58Speaker 1: if you could look back and from coming back from
- 20:04Speaker 1: the airport and seeing Grand Puba at six thirty in
- 20:06Speaker 1: the morning and making sure you went up to him
- 20:10Speaker 1: because he was wearing the items in the video to
- 20:13Speaker 1: kind of the beginning stages. So it's kind of seating itself.
- 20:17Speaker 1: And what was the aha moment? Was it that SNL
- 20:21Speaker 1: moment or in your mind as you're going through it
- 20:24Speaker 1: and living it in real time, was there a moment
- 20:27Speaker 1: where this was happening, like this was where the gorilla
- 20:32Speaker 1: marketing is actually turning into like a cultural takeover.
- 20:37Speaker 2: Well, yes, and Vibe magazine Quincy Jones launched Vibe and
- 20:44Speaker 2: Vibe was like the R and B urban rolling Stone.
- 20:51Speaker 2: They came to me said, Andy, you know we've got
- 20:53Speaker 2: this some of them magazine. There's fashion. It's great I
- 20:57Speaker 2: gave them because I was also in charge of the ads,
- 21:01Speaker 2: the advertising. I gave them their first ads also the
- 21:07Speaker 2: source also XXL. So I stepped out of the commercial
- 21:11Speaker 2: commercial advertising thing in advertised in these magazines and again
- 21:18Speaker 2: the first commercial company in this the aha moments, I
- 21:27Speaker 2: mean so many of them, but really getting to know
- 21:32Speaker 2: Quincy Jones and Kadata and Rashida had great times with them.
- 21:38Speaker 2: But here in the you know, you hear the Tommy
- 21:41Speaker 2: Hill figure your name on the radio and you're like,
- 21:45Speaker 2: what's bigger than that? That's so iconic and so new,
- 21:51Speaker 2: always excited. I mean when Ray Kwan came out with
- 21:53Speaker 2: his solo record, same thing. It just like talking rapping
- 21:58Speaker 2: about Tommy and cute in the foujis and it was
- 22:02Speaker 2: very cool, and you know, talking about Tommy but really
- 22:05Speaker 2: talking about Tommy Hill, the collection, the clothes, the whole vibe.
- 22:13Speaker 1: And you know what's crazy about that.
- 22:15Speaker 2: You know, as you share the.
- 22:16Speaker 1: Story, it wasn't paid for that. You know they wanted
- 22:20Speaker 1: to do it or yeah, you encourage them to do it,
- 22:24Speaker 1: like you don't tell them to say the name in
- 22:26Speaker 1: the song. Really they're they're just saying the name in
- 22:28Speaker 1: the song because I remember at a time in the
- 22:30Speaker 1: early nineties. I mean it was really in a lot
- 22:33Speaker 1: of songs. I mean it was in a lot of
- 22:36Speaker 1: hip hop songs.
- 22:38Speaker 2: But you know that continued also and Asap Rocky and
- 22:44Speaker 2: then you know some of these younger rappers and the
- 22:48Speaker 2: hill figure thing has continued in the songs. I think
- 22:52Speaker 2: because of what we did early on Andy.
- 22:56Speaker 1: If you don't mind, could you share that story of
- 23:01Speaker 1: at least for me and my generation, it was really
- 23:04Speaker 1: that one moment on SNL where Snoop Dogg wore the
- 23:09Speaker 1: Tommy rugby and you know, for those listening, SNL had
- 23:15Speaker 1: never had a hip hop artist on as the featured musician.
- 23:20Speaker 1: In addition, Snoop Dog's Doggie style was one of the first,
- 23:25Speaker 1: if not the first two, was full hip hop that
- 23:28Speaker 1: went number one on the pop chart, and he was
- 23:31Speaker 1: going to go make his appearance on SNL. Can you
- 23:35Speaker 1: share how that came together in the back end that
- 23:39Speaker 1: he ultimately wore a Tommy shirt and showcased it on
- 23:43Speaker 1: SNL when the whole world you know, that was when
- 23:45Speaker 1: shows were getting twenty million viewers. You know, that was
- 23:48Speaker 1: a different time. Really, no Internet, very few people had
- 23:52Speaker 1: cable how can you share that story from your perspective
- 23:55Speaker 1: on how that came to life.
- 23:57Speaker 2: Tommy, Michael h and I were at the after party
- 24:02Speaker 2: for the MTV Awards and it was at the National
- 24:07Speaker 2: Museum of History, and Snooped, like Michael h is hat like,
- 24:13Speaker 2: we were kind of dressed in rock stars and they
- 24:15Speaker 2: started talking and we all started talking and I said, yeah,
- 24:19Speaker 2: this is Tommy Tommy. He goes, oh, yeah, man, I know,
- 24:23Speaker 2: you know, probably from Grand Pooble, like he knew what
- 24:26Speaker 2: Tommy Hill was, and that's what the everybody called Tommy
- 24:33Speaker 2: Tommy Hill. And I said, Hey, if you want to
- 24:38Speaker 2: come check out the clothes, give me a call. Here's
- 24:41Speaker 2: my card. But at this time, everybody was calling and
- 24:46Speaker 2: coming up, so I didn't really think like, oh, yeah,
- 24:49Speaker 2: they're going to come up tomorrow. I thought they were
- 24:51Speaker 2: cool and I knew who they were and from the
- 24:54Speaker 2: chronic with Doctor Dre and the whole New Snoop thing.
- 24:59Speaker 2: And so the next morning I get to the office
- 25:02Speaker 2: about eleven o'clock and the phone's beeping or you know,
- 25:08Speaker 2: the lights flashing. So there's a message from Snoop. He's like, Yo, Andy,
- 25:12Speaker 2: we met last night. I want to come up so
- 25:16Speaker 2: I called back. I'm like, yeah, yeah. He said, we
- 25:18Speaker 2: got to come now because we're going back to LA
- 25:20Speaker 2: I said, okay. They showed up. Snoop walks in Tommy
- 25:23Speaker 2: Hillfiger Corporate with the Dog Pound, and everybody's like, oh,
- 25:28Speaker 2: I wonder who this is? What's going on? And here
- 25:31Speaker 2: hill Figures major corporate, all American fashion company and the
- 25:39Speaker 2: dog Pound showed up and Tommy showed him everything. I
- 25:45Speaker 2: showed him around. We showed him, you know, everything from
- 25:48Speaker 2: suits to Rugby's to sweaters to you know, all the
- 25:53Speaker 2: different accessories. And we said, hey, pick some stuff. Pick
- 25:58Speaker 2: what you want. You know. They took a bunch of stuff.
- 26:01Speaker 2: We gave him clothes and they left and Snoop said,
- 26:06Speaker 2: I'm going to be back in a couple of weeks.
- 26:08Speaker 2: I'll call you. I'm like cool. So he came back
- 26:12Speaker 2: and he called me, but we just hung out. We
- 26:14Speaker 2: went out a couple of different places and this and that,
- 26:18Speaker 2: and then I don't know if it was another trip.
- 26:23Speaker 2: Maybe a couple of weeks after that, he called and said, oh, Andy,
- 26:27Speaker 2: what's up. I need some more gear. I'm like, oh,
- 26:30Speaker 2: come up to the office. He's like, I can't. I'm
- 26:33Speaker 2: rehearsing for Saturday Night Live. Meet me at my Hotel
- 26:38Speaker 2: macklo in Midtown at midnight. So I went over there
- 26:46Speaker 2: with a Nitsy, my assistant, who knew everybody and arranged everything. Anyway,
- 26:53Speaker 2: We went over to the hotel and gave Snoop the
- 26:57Speaker 2: clothes and the dog pound and then Snoop said, yo,
- 27:01Speaker 2: but I saw the other Rugby on the mannequin. I
- 27:05Speaker 2: went back to the showroom. This was one in the morning,
- 27:09Speaker 2: got in the showroom, took the Rugby, went back and
- 27:13Speaker 2: gave it to him. He's like, I'm going to wear this.
- 27:16Speaker 2: I'm like, cool man. So I left. The next night
- 27:20Speaker 2: about quarter or twelve, Tommy calls and says, hey, Andy,
- 27:24Speaker 2: Snoop's got my clothes on. I'm like, yeah, I was
- 27:27Speaker 2: at Hotel Macalo last night. And then that Monday in
- 27:34Speaker 2: the office, all the sales teams from all the different
- 27:38Speaker 2: areas like Texas and Florida and California recalling saying what
- 27:43Speaker 2: happened because we ran out of the Rugbys, and A
- 27:47Speaker 2: Nitsy was like, oh, that's because Andy dressed Snoop Saturday night.
- 27:52Speaker 2: So that was like a whole nother way of medium marketing.
- 27:58Speaker 2: And then a few months later Spice Girls were in
- 28:03Speaker 2: town and I went to four seasons with chopping bags
- 28:06Speaker 2: of clothes and they weren't on Saturday Night Live. And
- 28:10Speaker 2: then Kadata called and said, new addition is going on
- 28:13Speaker 2: Saturday Night Live and they need leather jackets. And we
- 28:19Speaker 2: had these great motorcross jackets and they all wore them
- 28:22Speaker 2: and Bobby Brown shouted me out on Saturday Night Live.
- 28:27Speaker 2: So yeah, there was on TV BT BT was the best.
- 28:33Speaker 2: But we've got a lot of play out of yeah,
- 28:38Speaker 2: out of this new way of media.
- 28:41Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's funny. I just was. There was recently
- 28:44Speaker 1: an interview on with Snoop Dogg and it went around.
- 28:50Speaker 1: It was viral, or at least you know, it got
- 28:52Speaker 1: to shared with me many times. But it was really
- 28:54Speaker 1: Snoop talking about if not for you specific quickly at
- 29:01Speaker 1: that night, meeting up with him and all the things,
- 29:04Speaker 1: you know, you were really the plug to get him
- 29:07Speaker 1: to wear that and it was and he said, he said,
- 29:10Speaker 1: all of that, you know, really helped change it.
- 29:14Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, And that was three weeks ago, two
- 29:18Speaker 2: weeks ago. Well what happened also is so this Saturday
- 29:22Speaker 2: Night Live thing happened everything in school. Then I hung
- 29:26Speaker 2: out with Snoop in La couple events or something, real friends,
- 29:31Speaker 2: you know. I'd call him when I was out there whatever.
- 29:35Speaker 2: And then he called and said, Hey, Andy, I want
- 29:39Speaker 2: to do my own clothes. I'm like, oh, okay. So
- 29:45Speaker 2: this friend of mine, Michael Cohen, who's connected to all
- 29:48Speaker 2: the manufacturing, and he passed away now RIFP to Michael.
- 29:53Speaker 2: But Michael Cohen, I said, Mike, you know, can we
- 29:57Speaker 2: look for a deal for Snoop? So Michael and I
- 29:59Speaker 2: went around the arment center and a lot of people
- 30:04Speaker 2: told us no, but somebody told us yes, we want
- 30:08Speaker 2: to do it. And they launched a line called Big
- 30:11Speaker 2: Snoop Dog and it was in all the department stores
- 30:14Speaker 2: and it had a nice run. It was great stuff,
- 30:17Speaker 2: a lot of bandana and patchwork. Denam really his uh
- 30:23Speaker 2: la look, his long beach look so uh and he
- 30:29Speaker 2: know and I didn't. I just did that as a
- 30:31Speaker 2: as a favor. I didn't, you know, put myself in
- 30:34Speaker 2: the deal. And he knew that. And you know, he's
- 30:37Speaker 2: just a great guy.
- 30:39Speaker 1: And that that's interesting? Did that did that kind of
- 30:41Speaker 1: inspire you more that these partnerships were actually like a
- 30:46Speaker 1: huge opportunity. You know, maybe at the time they were
- 30:48Speaker 1: overlooked or it was niche, or it was you know whatever,
- 30:52Speaker 1: Like you said, whatever word. I feel like they've changed
- 30:54Speaker 1: the word of Hunter's Urban. It's black, it's hip hop,
- 30:58Speaker 1: it's you know, whatever the case. But did that kind
- 31:01Speaker 1: of inspire you to see the opportunity around the partnerships
- 31:05Speaker 1: I was getting.
- 31:06Speaker 2: I was getting calls from everybody to do their clothing lines,
- 31:11Speaker 2: especially after I signed Jennifer Lopez. Michael Jackson called and
- 31:16Speaker 2: I met with him twice and at his house and everything,
- 31:20Speaker 2: and he sat there and showed me everything, and he
- 31:24Speaker 2: designed all his clothing himself. All that stuff that Michael
- 31:28Speaker 2: wore was all designed by him. But at the time
- 31:33Speaker 2: I was doing Jennifer Lopez and I don't know, it's
- 31:37Speaker 2: a lot to launch a brand. So everybody was calling,
- 31:43Speaker 2: and at one point I was basically like you know,
- 31:49Speaker 2: Rock where Fat Farm. All these brands were coming out
- 31:54Speaker 2: and doing major business. So I signed Jennifer Lopez. I
- 32:02Speaker 2: left Tommy Corp. And I signed Jennifer and we developed
- 32:10Speaker 2: a clothing line, a jewelry line, lingerie, and we had
- 32:15Speaker 2: to deal with Macy's and then we put out a
- 32:20Speaker 2: fragrance through Cody that went number one called Glow by
- 32:24Speaker 2: j Lo. The apparel was tough, but we got it
- 32:28Speaker 2: really great eventually. And then the collection we did Sweet Face.
- 32:34Speaker 2: It was a higher end collection that was great, so
- 32:39Speaker 2: it was a good run. And then Cole's took it
- 32:42Speaker 2: over Cole's department stores and then they did j Lo
- 32:46Speaker 2: j Lo Beauty. But and at that same time or
- 32:52Speaker 2: a little bit afterwards, we launched my brand, Andrew Charles,
- 32:57Speaker 2: but the stores wanted to know who was the spokesperson
- 33:02Speaker 2: besides me. They wanted to know what celebrity and it's like,
- 33:07Speaker 2: how about Steven Tyler because he at the same time,
- 33:09Speaker 2: Steven wanted to do something in fashion. So I did
- 33:14Speaker 2: that relation, you know, hook that all up, and Stephen
- 33:17Speaker 2: for a year was behind the line, did a couple
- 33:20Speaker 2: of fashion shows. And then this guy Eddie Lambert who
- 33:25Speaker 2: bought Sears Kmart. He had signed Adam Levine and Nicki Minaj,
- 33:32Speaker 2: but really didn't know how to do the celebrity brand thing.
- 33:36Speaker 2: So he hired my team Star Branding, and we launched
- 33:41Speaker 2: Nicky and Adam in all of the Kmart stores. So
- 33:48Speaker 2: that was another celebrity brand had a lot of fun
- 33:52Speaker 2: with that.
- 33:56Speaker 1: No, I remember all that, And actually, you know, it's funny.
- 33:59Speaker 1: You and I met through Quincy Jones. I was actually
- 34:04Speaker 1: an intern at his office, Quest Records, and it was
- 34:09Speaker 1: Jay Brown. He was my contact, and his brother Kyrie Brown,
- 34:14Speaker 1: Mike Pursade, the Persad brothers, and they kind of through
- 34:20Speaker 1: that circle connected you and I because at that time
- 34:25Speaker 1: you were working on a music label with him, like
- 34:28Speaker 1: a Andy Hill figure, Quincy's music label, and you were
- 34:33Speaker 1: in the process of, you know, sponsoring the Britney Spears
- 34:38Speaker 1: tour where I worked. But how did that conversation go
- 34:41Speaker 1: with Quincy Jones and Andy Hill figure entertainment for you
- 34:45Speaker 1: to kind of take your network and then instead of
- 34:48Speaker 1: just clothing musicians, you were going to actually source A
- 34:53Speaker 1: and R play on and elevate musicians on that side
- 34:59Speaker 1: of the table.
- 35:00Speaker 2: Kadatta who was working for us, and I mean ever
- 35:05Speaker 2: since she got there, the phones were like really ringing
- 35:07Speaker 2: off the wall. Everybody from LA and anyway. Kadatas kept saying, Andy,
- 35:13Speaker 2: my dad's looking for artists, you know, and I'm like, yeah,
- 35:18Speaker 2: well I've got a lot of artists. I mean, we
- 35:21Speaker 2: can do this. So Quincy and I talked and he said, yeah,
- 35:26Speaker 2: bring me some new talent, and you know, he even
- 35:30Speaker 2: wanted me to a and R a New Order record.
- 35:33Speaker 2: New Order was a very huge group, but on the
- 35:38Speaker 2: team to find new artists it was Jay Brown, probably
- 35:44Speaker 2: Kyrie jay Z and myself and we were all consulting
- 35:49Speaker 2: quest and I was really helping out Toama with her
- 35:54Speaker 2: career a lot. We'd put her in like fashion shows,
- 35:58Speaker 2: and I got her in some men magazines, and then
- 36:04Speaker 2: Jay Brown and I put together Michael Friedo his record,
- 36:10Speaker 2: and it was executive produced by Quincy. But when we
- 36:14Speaker 2: brought it to Warner Brothers, who was our partner, they
- 36:18Speaker 2: wanted it to be more pop like in Sink and
- 36:24Speaker 2: back Street Boys in this whole thing, where Michael was
- 36:28Speaker 2: a little more R and B than that. He was
- 36:31Speaker 2: more like Aaron Neville type voice. Anyway, we did, we
- 36:38Speaker 2: went to the pop producers. We got great tracks. We
- 36:42Speaker 2: had a top twenty hit this time around. It was
- 36:47Speaker 2: called But a friend of mine in the business actually
- 36:53Speaker 2: used to be a rock and roll lawyer in New
- 36:56Speaker 2: York who I knew, called me when I was in
- 36:58Speaker 2: LA working on Michael Friedo's record, and he said Andy,
- 37:03Speaker 2: I have a new artist. We just did a video.
- 37:07Speaker 2: I think she's going to be huge, but we need help.
- 37:10Speaker 2: She wants to model the money. I said, well, you know,
- 37:15Speaker 2: send me, send me the tape that was at the
- 37:18Speaker 2: time where you know you got a VHS in the mail.
- 37:21Speaker 2: The next day I put it in and it was
- 37:24Speaker 2: Baby one more time, and I was like, oh, well,
- 37:28Speaker 2: this is great. She's cute. You know, she's great. So
- 37:32Speaker 2: I called him back. I said, we're going to be
- 37:33Speaker 2: in New York next week. He said we are too.
- 37:37Speaker 2: I said, I want to do something with her, but
- 37:40Speaker 2: I want her to meet Tommy. So they said great, great,
- 37:47Speaker 2: So they came to New York. They came to the office.
- 37:51Speaker 2: It was Larry Rudolph, the lawyer manager in Brittany, and
- 37:55Speaker 2: Brittany was just this little girl from Louisiana. Yeah, And
- 38:01Speaker 2: I brought her up to meet Tommy. Well, he was
- 38:04Speaker 2: in a design meeting with like fifteen people and I
- 38:08Speaker 2: opened the door and everybody looked over and I said, oh, everybody,
- 38:12Speaker 2: this is Britney Spears. She's gonna have a new song
- 38:15Speaker 2: in the radio next week, and blah blah blah, and
- 38:18Speaker 2: Tommy came out to say Hi, and then I said,
- 38:23Speaker 2: so I want to use her in the campaign, you
- 38:26Speaker 2: know with Mark Ronson and Kadata and these others. But
- 38:30Speaker 2: Tommy was like, it's up to you, but stay in budget,
- 38:35Speaker 2: like we weren't trying to, you know, pay for a supermodel.
- 38:40Speaker 2: And so she did the campaign a couple of weeks later,
- 38:45Speaker 2: and we rented a recording studio down on sixth Avenue
- 38:51Speaker 2: and in the twenties, and the day we did the shoot,
- 38:55Speaker 2: she went number one and CNN, The Post, the Daily News, Fox,
- 39:05Speaker 2: everybody came to the studio to do press. And so
- 39:11Speaker 2: I can't say it's discovered her because she was going
- 39:14Speaker 2: to blow up anyway, but I really put some icing
- 39:19Speaker 2: on the cake. And then she came out in these
- 39:21Speaker 2: ads and Vibe and Rolling Stone and you know, teen
- 39:27Speaker 2: Vogue and huge ad campaign. So then Larry called and said, oh,
- 39:34Speaker 2: the campaign was great, thanks so much, but we're going
- 39:38Speaker 2: on tour, Britney's first tour. She's going to headline and
- 39:41Speaker 2: we need sponsorship. And I said how much and this
- 39:45Speaker 2: and this, So I said, I'll sponsor the tour, but
- 39:48Speaker 2: you gotta let my artists open up for Britney. No problem,
- 39:53Speaker 2: no problem. And I said, and they all have to
- 39:55Speaker 2: wear Tommy. Tommy Girl. They didn't have to wear it
- 40:00Speaker 2: on stage, but you know everybody should be wearing Tommy.
- 40:05Speaker 2: No problem, no problem. So we did twenty five dates
- 40:08Speaker 2: Tommy Jeans Presents, Britney Spears and Michael Frado opened for her,
- 40:14Speaker 2: and then she just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
- 40:19Speaker 1: No. I love that. You know, it's funny because you
- 40:21Speaker 1: and I met in nineteen ninety nine on that tour. Yeah,
- 40:26Speaker 1: I was hired to be an assistant tour manager, and
- 40:29Speaker 1: you know we've known each other. It's crazy, twenty six years.
- 40:33Speaker 1: We can't even talk about how long it's been because
- 40:35Speaker 1: we both started, you know, so young, but you know
- 40:39Speaker 1: it's crazy to think about how many years ago that was,
- 40:42Speaker 1: and you know, just the nineties in general. So when
- 40:47Speaker 1: you look at fashion today and you think about, you know,
- 40:53Speaker 1: everything you just shared, you know, what is your thoughts
- 40:57Speaker 1: on the state of the union. I mean, obviously a
- 41:00Speaker 1: lot has changed, but in your mind, maybe what stayed
- 41:04Speaker 1: the same, what's changed everything? Maybe you could just share
- 41:07Speaker 1: kind of like a nineties to today fashion time capsule.
- 41:11Speaker 2: Well, it's reintroducing, reinventing, and nothing's really changed, except the
- 41:22Speaker 2: landscape of how the retail market works now. You know,
- 41:27Speaker 2: with your onlines, your Amazons and your shopifys and all
- 41:32Speaker 2: your online shopping really took away from a lot of
- 41:37Speaker 2: the stores. So you know, it used to be a
- 41:43Speaker 2: world of department stores and more retail stores, and now
- 41:48Speaker 2: a lot of that is taken away by the internet.
- 41:52Speaker 2: But like luxury, luxury will always be luxury. And maybe
- 41:59Speaker 2: it's downright a bit right now, but it's because they've
- 42:03Speaker 2: expanded in. Some stores work, some stores don't. The Middle East,
- 42:08Speaker 2: you never know. But what happened in our business is
- 42:12Speaker 2: the fast fashion guys came in and you know, you're
- 42:17Speaker 2: setting up these huge, fast, fast fashion businesses across from
- 42:24Speaker 2: a Macy's where you can get really half the price,
- 42:29Speaker 2: and that's that really disrupted things. And then you have Zara.
- 42:36Speaker 2: I mean, they're all great stores and have great product,
- 42:39Speaker 2: but that's the whole landscape change. So it's much harder
- 42:44Speaker 2: for brands to expand in the States unless they have
- 42:48Speaker 2: a big online presence and they have you know, a
- 42:53Speaker 2: few of their own stores or whatever. But like Andrew Charles,
- 42:57Speaker 2: right now, we're online Andrews dot com with the Rock
- 43:02Speaker 2: and Roll line and we refresh every season. We'll refresh
- 43:06Speaker 2: with new pieces. But we're only in two stores. We're
- 43:11Speaker 2: online and in two stores, and both of them are
- 43:13Speaker 2: my you know, my wife came into my stores. So
- 43:18Speaker 2: you got to figure out your own thing in this business.
- 43:21Speaker 2: And just like music, I mean, you can become a
- 43:25Speaker 2: big popular musician if you build your own audience. So
- 43:29Speaker 2: it's kind of that. I feel it's the same thing.
- 43:32Speaker 2: Right now. I'm really building an audience and it's going
- 43:37Speaker 2: to take time, but it's great. I mean, the people
- 43:39Speaker 2: who are joined in to the being part of this
- 43:43Speaker 2: lifestyle and this brand are dedicated. They love it. We're
- 43:48Speaker 2: just expanding it and we're not trying. I'm not trying
- 43:52Speaker 2: to be anybody. We're not. We're just being who we
- 43:55Speaker 2: are and things have been good. We dress just MGK
- 44:02Speaker 2: has been on stage. He's huge now with our clothing
- 44:05Speaker 2: on his tours, and it's kind of the same thing
- 44:08Speaker 2: in the nineties.
- 44:09Speaker 1: You know, what is your advice for people that want
- 44:14Speaker 1: to get into fashion? I mean with kind of holding
- 44:19Speaker 1: companies and conglomerates, and you know that was maybe back
- 44:24Speaker 1: in the day there was a lot more independence, but
- 44:27Speaker 1: you know a lot of people are obviously passionate about
- 44:30Speaker 1: the fashion industry. But I know your two sons work
- 44:34Speaker 1: in fashion. What is your advice to young people, whether
- 44:37Speaker 1: it's your own sons or someone that comes up to
- 44:39Speaker 1: you and says, Andy, you know already have some tips.
- 44:43Speaker 2: Okay, work in retail if you're into fashion and want
- 44:50Speaker 2: to be in the fashion business, whether it's the business,
- 44:53Speaker 2: the marketing, the apparel design. If you work in retail,
- 44:58Speaker 2: like at a Gap or you know, one of these
- 45:03Speaker 2: Abercrombie or anywhere you learn, you learn the styles, the fits,
- 45:09Speaker 2: the fabric, what countries they're made in, the price points.
- 45:13Speaker 2: It's an education right in front of you. So that's
- 45:18Speaker 2: my advice. And then you know, f I T Is great.
- 45:22Speaker 2: There's a lot of great fashion schools. Parsons, that's nice,
- 45:30Speaker 2: but f I T is a state school. And then
- 45:35Speaker 2: there's Merit and Poughkeepsie, and there's uh in Savannah, there's
- 45:41Speaker 2: I mean, there's all kinds of great places to go
- 45:43Speaker 2: to school. But if you're not going to go to school,
- 45:46Speaker 2: I mean, even if you do go to school, you
- 45:48Speaker 2: should work in retail.
- 45:50Speaker 1: Yeah, and your and your two sons work in fashion.
- 45:53Speaker 1: What what did you kind of tell them. Did you
- 45:54Speaker 1: want them to kind of take over, well, not take over,
- 45:58Speaker 1: but extend the fashion elevation of the family or did
- 46:02Speaker 1: they just get inspired. Maybe he's in the DNA.
- 46:05Speaker 2: It is in the DNA. Well, Andrew always had. He's
- 46:09Speaker 2: the collaboration designer at Wrangler, and he worked at Tommy
- 46:13Speaker 2: and interned and stuff. But he went to Parsons School.
- 46:16Speaker 2: But Andrew has always had the same kind of thing, like, oh,
- 46:20Speaker 2: look how cool this band looks. Look at the stones
- 46:23Speaker 2: and their things, and so he always got the whole.
- 46:28Speaker 2: He is great eye and Will is great with people
- 46:34Speaker 2: and events and pr and he's working at G three,
- 46:38Speaker 2: who have Carl Lagerfeld, DK and Y. I mean they
- 46:43Speaker 2: have like twenty starter or they have about twenty brands.
- 46:46Speaker 2: And Will is doing influencer marketing in events. So they're
- 46:51Speaker 2: both busy having fun doing the thing. Will reminds me
- 46:55Speaker 2: of me a bit because he's like, Oh, yeah, I
- 46:58Speaker 2: just sent you know and so this or so and
- 47:01Speaker 2: so that, and I mean that's what I did. You
- 47:07Speaker 2: know that before it was called influencer.
- 47:10Speaker 1: Yeah, no, you're like the original influencer really, one of
- 47:13Speaker 1: the architects that did it at scale, you know, Andy
- 47:16Speaker 1: if you could share, maybe double click just for a second.
- 47:21Speaker 1: The Michael Jackson movie is just coming out, and you know,
- 47:24Speaker 1: most people he's been passed away. I think he passed
- 47:28Speaker 1: away in nine. You know, it's been so long, yeah,
- 47:32Speaker 1: you know since he passed away. But maybe you could
- 47:35Speaker 1: share a little bit because he did an iconic Vibe
- 47:38Speaker 1: magazine cover with that hill figure sweater, and I know
- 47:42Speaker 1: you traveled to his house. What was it like meeting
- 47:46Speaker 1: him because he was so big. You know, it's interesting
- 47:48Speaker 1: seeing the interviews now, Andy were people like he was
- 47:51Speaker 1: so famous that you can't even you know, there's like
- 47:55Speaker 1: no way.
- 47:56Speaker 2: She sat there and told me for half an hour,
- 48:02Speaker 2: how you know how big he was? And he was
- 48:04Speaker 2: bigger than this and that and this and that. Yeah,
- 48:08Speaker 2: how it really happened was Kadata was styling with Kevin Stewart,
- 48:15Speaker 2: who was the fashion person Vibe. They were styling a
- 48:20Speaker 2: shoe with Michael Jackson, and Kadatta said, I need the
- 48:26Speaker 2: h sweater, I need this, I need that, And Kevin
- 48:31Speaker 2: and Kadata went out to LA and did that photo shoot.
- 48:36Speaker 2: So I didn't do that shoot, but I endorsed it
- 48:41Speaker 2: and gave her the clothes and stuff like that. But
- 48:45Speaker 2: years later, maybe three four years later, I got a
- 48:49Speaker 2: phone call from a friend and said I'm sitting here
- 48:51Speaker 2: with Michael Jackson and he put Mike on the phone
- 48:56Speaker 2: and Michael's like, oh, I want to meet you. I
- 48:58Speaker 2: want to send you over my clothes. And this is
- 49:00Speaker 2: when I was at j LO on Bryant Park, and
- 49:04Speaker 2: I said, oh, yeah, definitely, you know, send them over.
- 49:08Speaker 2: I'm not kidding you. Like within an hour I had
- 49:10Speaker 2: his red shirt and his black pants with the thing
- 49:13Speaker 2: down the side in my office. And then he called
- 49:17Speaker 2: back and said I want to meet with you. I said, oh,
- 49:21Speaker 2: the clothes aren't grand. I want to meet with you.
- 49:24Speaker 2: So I called Tommy, who was at his office at
- 49:26Speaker 2: Tommy Hillfiger, and I said, you know, Michael Jackson wants
- 49:30Speaker 2: to meet meet me to talk about doing a line.
- 49:35Speaker 2: Tommy said, I'll go with you, and Tommy's daughter Allie
- 49:39Speaker 2: went with us. So we went over to the Palace
- 49:41Speaker 2: Hotel on Madison A f Helmsley Palace. I don't know
- 49:47Speaker 2: what it's called now. Anyway, we went in and a
- 49:51Speaker 2: few guys were there and they knew we were coming.
- 49:54Speaker 2: They took us up and Michael had the whole floor
- 49:57Speaker 2: rented out and one room he had, like I don't know,
- 50:03Speaker 2: the Little Rascals was playing and he had his whole
- 50:08Speaker 2: theme in the hotel happening. And we sat there and
- 50:12Speaker 2: talked to him for a good hour or so, and
- 50:16Speaker 2: he told us about you know, all his clothes were
- 50:20Speaker 2: designed by him, made by somebody else, but they were
- 50:24Speaker 2: had his ideas, and he said, you know, I want
- 50:27Speaker 2: to be the next Calvin Klein, and I know I
- 50:31Speaker 2: could be that because I'm more popular than any of
- 50:36Speaker 2: the designers. And we're like, yeah, yeah, no, definitely you are.
- 50:44Speaker 2: And Tommy said, we're going to be in La this
- 50:46Speaker 2: weekend because we're going to the Race to Erase MS,
- 50:51Speaker 2: which he'll figure with sponsoring. And Tommy said, Michael, why
- 50:54Speaker 2: don't you come with us as a guest. He said, no, no,
- 50:58Speaker 2: I can't, but I want you guys to come to
- 51:00Speaker 2: my house. So that the MS thing was on a
- 51:04Speaker 2: Friday night in May, and then the next morning I
- 51:11Speaker 2: was like, well, we got to go to Michael's today
- 51:14Speaker 2: and Tommy's like, oh, it's far, I don't know, and
- 51:18Speaker 2: Allie was like, oh no, we gotta go. And I'm
- 51:21Speaker 2: like Tommy's like, it's gonna take like two and a
- 51:23Speaker 2: half hours to drive and this, and I said, why
- 51:26Speaker 2: don't we take a helicopter. Tommy's like, oh, good idea.
- 51:32Speaker 2: So I called the pilot for the helicopter. We went,
- 51:37Speaker 2: got on a copter. It dropped right in Neverland and
- 51:43Speaker 2: I'm not kidding you. A chow choo train pulled up
- 51:47Speaker 2: with a conductor and this thing ran on like steam
- 51:52Speaker 2: or something. The guy had the hat on the whole thing.
- 51:55Speaker 2: So he picked us up and we drove through the
- 51:59Speaker 2: amusement park, the ferris wheel. There was drafts and elephants
- 52:04Speaker 2: and a stadium that looked like, you know, Acy Dacy
- 52:09Speaker 2: could have played. It was crazy. So we get to
- 52:14Speaker 2: the house, which was like a gingerbread mansion. Tommy, Allie
- 52:19Speaker 2: and I and Rosie, Tommy's security. We were standing there
- 52:25Speaker 2: after the train in. A butler came out and said.
- 52:27Speaker 3: Oh, he'll figures, how are you. Michael's coming now and
- 52:33Speaker 3: he'll be here in a second. Two seconds later, this limousine,
- 52:38Speaker 3: this white limousine, pulls up huge. He gets out and
- 52:44Speaker 3: he waves to us like we're fifty thousand people. And
- 52:50Speaker 3: the women came out from his house, his maids with
- 52:53Speaker 3: umbrellas risked him into this house.
- 52:57Speaker 2: Meanwhile, this is the best part. I'm setting there and
- 53:01Speaker 2: standing there in a baby elephant about this Big is
- 53:05Speaker 2: doing his tell and Allie and I were like, oh
- 53:08Speaker 2: my god. Then the butt theer was like, come in,
- 53:12Speaker 2: mister Jackson would like you guys to have lunch. So
- 53:17Speaker 2: I figured, we're going to have lunch with Michael. Well,
- 53:22Speaker 2: we're sitting in the restaurant in Neverland, and they waited
- 53:26Speaker 2: on us in the whole thing, and I said, where's
- 53:31Speaker 2: Michael And he said, oh, Michael would like to see
- 53:35Speaker 2: Tommy alone. And I said, oh okay. He said, but
- 53:40Speaker 2: you and Allie, you guys are going to go into
- 53:44Speaker 2: the game room and wait for him. So now the
- 53:48Speaker 2: meeting turned to Tommy's meeting. But that was fine. Ellie
- 53:52Speaker 2: and I go in the game room. The original pac Man,
- 53:59Speaker 2: the original every pinball machine, every single game, every single candy.
- 54:06Speaker 2: It was like unbelievable. So that I went outside and
- 54:12Speaker 2: I was kind of looking for the recording studio and
- 54:17Speaker 2: the butler said, oh, mister Hillfigure, mister Jackson's waiting for you.
- 54:22Speaker 2: So then I go in the meeting and we're telling
- 54:26Speaker 2: him that, you know, well, we're going to talk to
- 54:28Speaker 2: our people and this and that, and because he wanted
- 54:32Speaker 2: us to do what we did with j Lo, and
- 54:37Speaker 2: Tommy gave him a rock style book that he was in,
- 54:40Speaker 2: a Tommy Hill figured rock and roll book that Michael's
- 54:42Speaker 2: in like four pages and the little kids blanket and
- 54:47Speaker 2: the other one. They were hanging out with us and
- 54:51Speaker 2: they wanted us to stay and they loved Allie. They
- 54:55Speaker 2: were like, oh, jump on the trampoline, inside trampoline, like
- 54:59Speaker 2: it's This place was crazy. Remember the Jackson five had
- 55:04Speaker 2: those little mini bikes and the colored drums and stuff.
- 55:07Speaker 2: All that stuff was in this room. And then he
- 55:11Speaker 2: had he had oscars from Gone with the Wind, and
- 55:18Speaker 2: he had the original Pinocchio and he had the original
- 55:21Speaker 2: Howdy Dooty and it was just like surreal. Anyway, we
- 55:26Speaker 2: got back to New York and his manager and lawyer
- 55:32Speaker 2: and stuff. At the end of the day, they wanted
- 55:36Speaker 2: a lot of money up front, and we were busy.
- 55:41Speaker 2: It just didn't happen, But Tommy did try to get
- 55:46Speaker 2: Michael to do a song with Jennifer Lopez. We called
- 55:50Speaker 2: Michael one night from Tommy's house in Connecticut and said,
- 55:53Speaker 2: why don't you do song with Jennifer because we were
- 55:56Speaker 2: doing I was doing her line primarily me by out.
- 56:01Speaker 2: So a lot happened with that, and Michael signed the
- 56:06Speaker 2: pictures from Vibe for us to Tommy and Andy. It
- 56:10Speaker 2: was a great experience.
- 56:12Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I remember at that time. Afterward, you know,
- 56:17Speaker 1: sharing some stories, and you know, one of the thing
- 56:20Speaker 1: that's been a through line is really Kadata and her
- 56:25Speaker 1: as a stylist and as an ally and a partner
- 56:28Speaker 1: and friend of yours. As a last story, can you share,
- 56:32Speaker 1: you know, kind of how the Iliya photo shoot came
- 56:35Speaker 1: to be with Kadata and you and Mark Ronson.
- 56:40Speaker 2: What happened was at that Vibe show in nineteen ninety five.
- 56:44Speaker 2: It was Vibe le Face Records at the Music Seminar
- 56:49Speaker 2: in Times Square, so we were like the marryat and
- 56:53Speaker 2: the big huge thing for the Vibe show. It's funny
- 56:56Speaker 2: my mother when my sisters because it was kind of
- 57:01Speaker 2: my thing and it wasn't like, you know, if there's
- 57:04Speaker 2: a seventh a fashion show, you know the list this,
- 57:07Speaker 2: and it's like none of that. But that's actually back
- 57:10Speaker 2: to the Jacksons. That's where I met Janet and Jermaine.
- 57:16Speaker 2: So anyway, Aliyah was on Atlantic, but she was she
- 57:24Speaker 2: was working with Jermaine Napri and all these guys, and
- 57:27Speaker 2: Aliyah ended up being one of the models and Kadata
- 57:33Speaker 2: was styling the show. Actually it was Kadata's show. She
- 57:36Speaker 2: brought it to me, like, hey, my dad's going to
- 57:38Speaker 2: do this fashion show and he wants us to do it.
- 57:42Speaker 2: And Aliyah and Kadata became I introduced them and they
- 57:47Speaker 2: became best friends ever since the Vibe thing. Then we
- 57:52Speaker 2: did I don't know, six months later, we did the
- 57:57Speaker 2: shoot on the Roof in LA and it was Kate
- 58:01Speaker 2: Hudson Mark Ronson. Mark Ronson had been modeling for me
- 58:05Speaker 2: at Tommy and Pepe. Mark Ronson actually did the music
- 58:10Speaker 2: for the commercials for Tommy Jeans and especially if it
- 58:13Speaker 2: was like in store music because you had, you know,
- 58:17Speaker 2: you had to pay for that stuff. And I put
- 58:19Speaker 2: Mark Ronson in this. I'm the first one who ever
- 58:22Speaker 2: put him in the recording studio to record his own music.
- 58:26Speaker 2: Then he remixed Michael Friedo. I have two tracks that
- 58:30Speaker 2: he remixed from Fredo's record. But anyway, they became best
- 58:34Speaker 2: friends and we did the shoot on the roof and
- 58:39Speaker 2: after the shoot, that's when we did the bus tour
- 58:43Speaker 2: with the same cast, so Ronson, Ethan Brown, Simon Rax
- 58:49Speaker 2: from MTV, Kate Hudson, Rashida who she was at Harvard then,
- 58:55Speaker 2: but every time she would have a school break, she
- 58:58Speaker 2: would work for us, either model or she was great
- 59:02Speaker 2: at like logistics in producing the whole thing, because I mean,
- 59:06Speaker 2: here's a bunch of kids out on tour and Rashida
- 59:11Speaker 2: cracked the whip. She's like, Okay, everybody meet at seven
- 59:15Speaker 2: o'clock and the bah blah blah blah, and then Aliah
- 59:19Speaker 2: would have to go somewhere else to do a show
- 59:21Speaker 2: or whatever, and I'd be like, oh no, we need,
- 59:24Speaker 2: you know, a couple more models. And it's like, oh, Rashida,
- 59:27Speaker 2: were you modeled? Sure? You know, so stuff like that
- 59:32Speaker 2: happened China, chiwd. It was a whole crew and Andy,
- 59:38Speaker 2: how did that? You know?
- 59:39Speaker 1: Because at the time, that Aliyah look was really like radical,
- 59:44Speaker 1: you know, it was so different. Maybe it was her
- 59:47Speaker 1: energy or her body style, but how did you or
- 59:50Speaker 1: Kadata or Collection see the vision of that look.
- 59:56Speaker 2: Well, Aliyah had that vision in her head kind of
- 1:00:02Speaker 2: We didn't have a lot of Tommy Girl clothing. We
- 1:00:05Speaker 2: only had pieces, so everything that Leah had on was men's.
- 1:00:11Speaker 2: She put those jeans were men's and those jeans were
- 1:00:15Speaker 2: only for like fashion show that yeah, maybe we produced
- 1:00:19Speaker 2: those then too. But she wore the Tommy Hill figure
- 1:00:22Speaker 2: of red white blue jeans. But then she had our
- 1:00:26Speaker 2: box our gym shorts on. She liked basketball shorts. And
- 1:00:31Speaker 2: then it was Jenny Kadatta and I. We took a
- 1:00:35Speaker 2: men's Tommy T shirt and cut a bandeau with a logo,
- 1:00:40Speaker 2: and then we took a pair of men's briefs and
- 1:00:45Speaker 2: cut the kratcho and made a little top. So in
- 1:00:51Speaker 2: those pictures Aliyah has on men's underwear and men's top.
- 1:00:56Speaker 2: It wasn't women's. But then with her jewelry on her belly,
- 1:01:00Speaker 2: her rings and her necklace, her whole vibe. Then she
- 1:01:05Speaker 2: wore the Tommy slides you know, sandals. It was just
- 1:01:10Speaker 2: you know, I give it a lot to Kadata in uh,
- 1:01:14Speaker 2: you know, Jenny Dress Chape, Kate Hudson, and so it
- 1:01:17Speaker 2: was Kadata, Jenny and I with like ten trunks of clothes.
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: And Q three was there too, right was.
- 1:01:25Speaker 2: He modeled for it and he was cool. Mark Ronson.
- 1:01:29Speaker 2: It was funny because the shoot was Mark Ronson's DJ,
- 1:01:33Speaker 2: and everybody's just chilling. It wasn't like, oh stand here.
- 1:01:38Speaker 2: Everybody was just like having a good time. And that's
- 1:01:42Speaker 2: how it came off.
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it looks so natural.
- 1:01:46Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 1:01:46Speaker 1: So as we as we wrap up our time here, Andy,
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: I just want to ask you, when all is said
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: and done, you know, how do you want to be remembered?
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: You know, like, how do you want the world, the indush,
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: maybe the fans, your family, Like what what is the
- 1:02:04Speaker 1: most important? Because the story has been so wide and vast,
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: how do you want to be remembered?
- 1:02:10Speaker 2: Well? Number one, kind. I want to be remembered for
- 1:02:18Speaker 2: the word kind, being kind, and I think that has
- 1:02:23Speaker 2: helped me in my career the whole time, because I've
- 1:02:29Speaker 2: always been a kind person. Of course I get mad
- 1:02:33Speaker 2: and you know me, but kind is very I hope
- 1:02:39Speaker 2: people remember me somedays. Oh Andy was kind. And also
- 1:02:44Speaker 2: Andy was, like you said, the original influencer, yeah, or
- 1:02:50Speaker 2: the secret weapon. I don't know.
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I remember when we met. You know, you
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: didn't even have to hire me. I mean, let's just
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: let's talk about anything else. I didn't know anything about
- 1:03:01Speaker 1: anything about anything. I show up on time, but I
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: didn't actually know how to functionally do anything, and you
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: were introduced to us, you know, through a relationship. But
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: that didn't mean you had to actually help or you
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: could have just thrown me in the corner. But you
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: really spent the time to make sure I knew the things.
- 1:03:22Speaker 2: I understood everything, Doug. When you came into the mix,
- 1:03:28Speaker 2: it was a bit of chaos. It was okay now,
- 1:03:32Speaker 2: but you fit right in and all the casts loved
- 1:03:35Speaker 2: you and you made it happen. So I knew how
- 1:03:39Speaker 2: good you would would be and were in twenty minutes.
- 1:03:47Speaker 2: I mean, you either got it or I mean definitely.
- 1:03:50Speaker 2: And you're funny and kind and and I'm proud of
- 1:03:56Speaker 2: you for all the stuff you've done and the business
- 1:04:00Speaker 2: and ever since Matrick Johnson and your book and all
- 1:04:08Speaker 2: of your diversity things. Great.
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: No, I appreciate it. I mean it was It's funny
- 1:04:15Speaker 1: even talking about diversity now when it was that, you know, back,
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: can I say something about DIF Yeah, yeah, it was
- 1:04:22Speaker 1: never It was.
- 1:04:23Speaker 2: Never mentioned once during the whole let's say, eight years
- 1:04:28Speaker 2: of Tommy Jeans, nobody mentioned it once. We had everybody
- 1:04:33Speaker 2: worked for us. It didn't matter, it didn't matter where
- 1:04:38Speaker 2: they were from, what color, what, it didn't matter.
- 1:04:43Speaker 1: No, it was actually the most diverse workforce I've ever
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: worked it. I mean, working for Magic Johnson was very diverse,
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: but working with you was it was everybody. Tommy Jeans
- 1:04:55Speaker 1: was like then PJ Yep, yep, you had a Nitsy
- 1:05:07Speaker 1: Tiffin yeap. And you also had you know, Chris. I mean,
- 1:05:15Speaker 1: there was so many people.
- 1:05:18Speaker 2: Yep.
- 1:05:19Speaker 1: There were so many people on that tour. And I'm
- 1:05:22Speaker 1: just so appreciative of you. I'm so thankful for you.
- 1:05:25Speaker 1: You know, we you know, we're twenty years strong. But
- 1:05:30Speaker 1: thanks for always being warm and just so open to everything.
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: And thanks for sharing your time today in the in
- 1:05:36Speaker 1: the UFO. Maybe one day we'll know if UFO is
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: are real. But we got one behind you.
- 1:05:41Speaker 2: And there's also a clothing company called the UFO And
- 1:05:45Speaker 2: at People's Place we used to sell UFO jeans. Oh
- 1:05:49Speaker 2: so I was inspired by that. But the name is
- 1:05:52Speaker 2: actually Underground Fashional yeah okay for the stores, and then
- 1:05:57Speaker 2: the brand is Andrew Charles and everything else totally.
- 1:06:02Speaker 1: Well, thanks so much Andy for your time today, and
- 1:06:05Speaker 1: uh we will catch up again soon and I appreciate you.
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: Thanks so much you dm me with Doug Melville is
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: a production of the Black Effect podcast network.