TODAY IN BRAND EXTENSIONS: Hilfiger Switching Bleecker Street Store to New Tommy Concept

A few months ago we passed along the information that Tommy Hilfiger was creating a new collection aimed at 20-somethings called 'Tommy' that would initially be launched out of the spotlight in three Canadian stores before it would be made available next year on Tommy.com.

Well, not surprisingly someone at the Hilfiger organization (or possibly at new parent company PVH) has chosen to accelerate that schedule, and the Tommy Hilfiger boutique on Bleecker Street is being redone to prep for the new label. Earlier in the year, WWD told us that the line would be a departure from the designer's signature preppy basics, and the store concept would be "a white box with a pop of color, with decorative objects and modern art installations in the windows and throughout the space". While the shift may signal a vote of confidence in the new, as yet untested brand, it also suggests that Bleecker Street may not have been the ideal location for the main Hilfiger label. It may be that the fashion-minded customer drawn there by Marc Jacobs and Cynthia Rowley might not have been too excited by the designer guaranteed to be found in every Macy's. Frankly, it makes sense that the location in what is supposed to be a more exclusive shopping enclave would do better with the new label that isn't available everywhere you turn —not yet anyway. The 'Tommy' brand is meant to compete with the American Eagles and Abercrombies of the world, so if it finds a following,  it will ultimately be as ubiquitous as anything.

Explaining the changeover is a florid block of text pasted to the window that reads like some kind of crackpot manifesto:

Call us old-fashioned. Go ahead. Call us modern. That too. We are a bright and shining mishmash of past, present and future. Venerable tradition offset by plenty of rule breaking reinvention. Clothes are well-crafted and purposeful, realized in tip-top fabrics, with an irreverent streak and a big grin. It's an ode to the heyday of American heritage workwear and sharp dressing sportswear, with a healthy dose of attitude. Taking classic models and respectfully shaking them up until they look mussed, sassy and good, with the tiniest undercurrent of exquisite danger. Uptown ventures downtown and doesn't come back 'til morning. Downtown sallies uptown and charms with unexpectedly fine manners. We love to mix it up. We delight in a chambray shirt in bright red. We say yes to the crazy, inspired twist that makes it so very now. As a matter of principle, we believe in simple pleasures and making something of ourselves. We believe in saying what we mean and meaning what we say and wearing what we love.

TOMMY.

What the hell?

We know someone over at Tommy Hilfiger Headquarters is very proud of him or herself for thinking up "mussed, sassy and good, with the tiniest undercurrent of exquisite danger".
Maybe it was Tommy himself.
While he was really drunk.
We don't exactly know what that means, but, apparently, it's "the crazy, inspired twist that makes it so very now", and "so very now" is what we're all shooting for, right?

Fortunately for Hilfiger, it doesn't appear than anyone is actually stopping in their tracks to stand there and read the whole thing. We're probably the only ones who have, and we waited until we got home to read the photo we took. The collection is expected to launch in October, so we will all have to wait just a week or two to find out if the goods really are a "bright and shining mishmash of past, present and future".

Previously:
Tommy Hilfiger To Launch A New Line ...In Canada?
Hilfiger Launching Collection and Retail Concept (WWD 7/15/2010)