Build Inc. People & Blogs

How A Gas Station Boy Created Tommy Hilfiger 0 (0)

The Tommy Hilfiger origin story begins not in a glamorous fashion house, but in a small gas station town in upstate New York, where a restless teenager with learning disabilities and secondhand dreams decided the world needed something different. What drove a working-class kid from Elmira to build one of the most iconic American fashion empires on the planet — and what nearly erased him before he ever got started? The Tommy Hilfiger founder story is packed with unlikely turning points, a devastating bankruptcy, a bold gamble in the fashion capital of the world, and a single unforgettable cultural moment [See More…]

Build Inc. People & Blogs

How A Poor Bronx Boy Created Ralph Lauren 0 (0)

The Ralph Lauren story is the ultimate rags-to-riches fashion designer tale. Born Ralph Lifshitz in 1939 to poor Jewish immigrant parents in the Bronx, he changed his name at 16 to escape schoolyard bullying, wrote “millionaire” in his high school yearbook as a life goal, and built a $20 billion luxury brand from a single drawer in the Empire State Building. This American dream entrepreneur didn’t attend fashion school, didn’t have wealthy backers, and didn’t even know how to manufacture a tie when he launched Polo in 1967—yet he sold over $500,000 worth of his wide, colorful neckties in just [See More…]