Tommy Hilfiger's Fall Menswear: Elevating Sartorial with Casual Flair

Tommy Hilfiger is getting dressed up for fall — but in a very Tommy way. The New York collection, which was introduced last January at Pitti Uomo, is the designer’s more elevated and sophisticated menswear offering. As such, it’s filled with sartorial influences, but with his signature preppy undertones. Case in point, a duffle coat in a dark camel wool serge — “the color of the season,” he said — is made more casual through the addition of elongated pockets and wrist cuffs, while a rich suede shirt jacket in the same shade was shown with a waist-length jacket in a colorful exploded plaid. Tommy classics such as the varsity jacket and the rugby shirt were offered in brushed wool and cashmere blends, while overcoats sported glen checks and Donegal patterns. Blazers, chinos and overshirts were made from fine Italian fabrics and paired with technical wool jackets boasting performance features, including thermal regulation, crease recovery and water repellency. “I think there’s the beginning of a trend of dressing up again,” the designer said during a preview at his New York showroom. “Men who have never worn a suit are now wearing blazers, sport jackets, neckwear, dress shirts. And it’s not only here in the U.S., but it’s all over most cities. We’ve been casual for a very long time, and that’s the core of our business, but adding this layer and making it blend with casual dressing was the objective.” Mission accomplished. While the collection offered the requisite blue blazer with gold buttons, gray flannel suits and double-breasted pinstripe models — all of which were worn with pleated, high-waisted pants — they were dressed down with burgundy turtlenecks instead of traditional dress shirts. The suit offering included Hilfiger’s favorite — a camel two-piece with a matching double-breasted topcoat — as well as a corduroy model that was reminiscent of the one worn by Dustin Hoffman in 1967’s “The Graduate.” There was also a striking shearling aviator jacket as well as leather trucker jackets, cashmere fisherman’s sweaters, a boxy peacoat in the cashmere wool blend and a Western shirt complete with pearl snap buttons with a yoke and flap that would make a cowboy proud. Throughout the line, red, white and blue detailing was evident in striped linings and paneling, and the entire collection sported a new logo: a lion penny crest on a navy background, a woven New York underneath and the Tommy Hilfiger name in white thread, an elevated take for the designer’s next chapter. “This really is the top of our pyramid — more elevated, sartorial dressing,” he said. The Tommy Hilfiger New York collection will be sold in the company’s stores, premium department stores and online.