Hilfiger rocks Idol

Media Moment: American Idol

Queen-related: Freddie mentioned

Hey, wasn’t that Calvin Klein on Idol the other night? Wait, it’s Hugo Boss. No . . . it’s that other designer guy, Mr. Blackwell. Oh yeah, it was Tommy Hilfiger. What in the world is Tommy Hilfiger doing on American Idol? 

I guess he’s been brought in to provide a fashionista perspective on the “look” of Idol contestants. He mentioned that the top rock stars of their respective eras had a strong sense of image and fashion, and photos of three rock icons flashed across the screen — Hendrix, Bowie, and . . .

If one tuned in late to Idol and caught Hilfiger’s comments half-way through, one might have assumed he was talking about his influence on these musical personalities.

Throwing around pictures of him attempting to be a rock star (like this one) makes you wonder if he feels at least a distant connection to them through fashion and music in general. I’m sure Zandra Rhodes, however, would take exception to Hilfiger’s insinuation of establishing Freddie’s stage image if indeed that is what he was doing on Idol the other day.

He did explicitly say that he brought bell-bottom pants to the masses back in the early ’70s, and sure enough, they found an old photo of Steven Tyler in bell-bottoms.

Hilfiger mentioned that when he first started out as a fashion designer, he sold his clothing through his own retail store, which reminded me of Roger and Freddie selling used clothing at their kiosk in Kensington Market back in the day.

The other loose connection between Queen and Hilfiger is Axl Rose, an individual who has crossed paths with both of them — although under vastly different circumstances. Rose is on record stating his admiration for Freddie and Queen and even appeared at the Tribute Concert in 1992. As for Hilfiger and Rose, the two of them got into an argument at a nightclub in Manhattan with the fashion designer eventually smoking Rose in the jaw. Hilfiger was promptly escorted out by his own security people.

That probably explains why Tommy didn’t feature a shot of Axl Rose in his gallery of noteworthy musicians on Idol. 

http://gawker.com/175119/axl-rose-tommy-hilfiger-and-the-disappearing-item

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