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The Stroll and Chou Years
The partners were behind the brand's transformation in the Nineties.
SILAS CHOU: THE INNOVATOR
Ask Silas Chou what he most vividly recalls about the early days of his partnership with Tommy Hilfiger and he'll say it's that the young designer wanted to use 25 percent more material than anybody else.
In those days, Tommy was the first to do the casual, relaxed style. Everybody else was very body-fitted. His sweaters took more material, said Chou, who was a partner and co-chairman of Tommy Hilfiger Corp. from 1989 to 2002. Today, Chou is president and chief executive officer of Novel Enterprises Ltd., one of the largest vertical apparel and textile manufacturers in Asia, and an owner of Michael Kors.
Chou said when he first went to see Hilfiger's shop on Rodeo Drive in the mid-Eighties, he was very impressed with his product. Everybody was making sweaters in Shetland, cashmere and wools. Tommy wanted to make cotton sweaters. His were oversize and relaxed and I saw a new trend there, he said.
Chou produced Hilfiger's sweaters for a year or two, and then Hilfiger's original backer, Mohan Murjani, ran into business troubles. Tommy came to my office and asked me, Why don't you buy me up? Chou said he'd have to talk to Lawrence Stroll, his partner in Polo Europe, and they agreed. In 1989, Chou and Stroll formed Sportswear Holdings Ltd., and acquired 70 percent of Tommy Hilfiger Corp. Joel Horowitz and Hilfiger owned the remaining 30 percent. As a team, they took the company from about $25 million to nearly $2 billion in volume.
Often considered the brains and innovator behind Hilfiger's remarkable growth, Chou described what appealed to him about the designer.
First of all, I liked the fact that he styled a new product of relaxed American classics. Also, Tommy has a very open personality. He's inclusive. Most designers tend to be exclusive. Tommy always tried to be inclusive, friendly and helpful. And we became brothers forever, said Chou.
Under Murjani, Hilfiger was making both men's and women's lines. The first thing Chou did was to shed the women's line and focus on men's wear.
With Lawrence's experience, together with Joel, we put all our management skills and...