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Tommy Hilfiger and ... Wal-Mart?

A pairing could help the retailer catch up with Target's designer lines.

By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published October 4, 2005

Wal-Mart's next fashion statement could be the acquisition of Tommy Hilfiger Corp., the design house that's casting about for a new owner and a long-term strategy.

The garment industry is abuzz with reports that Hilfiger might be just the thing to help Wal-Mart play catch-up with Target's Isaac Mizrahi and Mossimo apparel lines. Already, Wal-Mart added 400-thread-count sheets, $2,600 LCD TV sets and George - its own cheap-chic fashion line to go after higher-income shoppers. The discounter even bought its first-ever ad in Vogue magazine last month and sponsored a show with Elle at New York's Fashion Week.

Hilfiger has been steadily losing space at department stores such as Macy's and Dillard's that once accounted for almost 38 percent of its business.

After saturating the preppie market in the 1990s, Hilfiger has been shifting more of its products to its own retail stores. That's where its H luxury menswear brand is headed after a year of tepid sales in department stores.

What Wal-Mart would do with Hilfiger's luxury ready-to-wear Karl Lagerfeld line and 37 licensed product lines others make with the Hilfiger brand remains an open question.

David Dyer, the former top merchant at HSN in St. Petersburg, is chief executive of Hilfiger. His last job was running Land's End when the mail-order house was sold to Sears Roebuck & Co.

Is there a pattern here?

[Last modified October 4, 2005, 02:15:30]