FaderMonkey

My dad recently sent me an email forward that contained this:

Has anyone heard this or know if it is true? I tried a search of the forums and couldn't find another posting about it.

Averett

If it's true... GO OPRAH. She is my hero.

Derwood might know... He works at her show, I think. Maybe he can shed some light on more Oprah awesomeness.

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

maleficent

http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/hilfiger.asp

Claim: Designer Tommy Hilfiger shocked the world when he appeared on a television talk show and said, "If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them."
Status: False.

Origins: Rumors
that Tommy Hilfiger made a racist remark exploded onto the Internet in the fall of 1996 after a news article purporting to be from a Philippines tabloid began making the online rounds. These self-same rumors had been in circulation at least nine months earlier, but the appearance of this article brought them to critical mass.

According to Cristina Peczon (author of the article), the revealing remark happened on CNN Style with Elsa Klensch, during an interview with both Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren on the latest fashion trends:


Hilfiger then supposedly butted in then with a comment, something like it is one thing for one's label to go popular worldwide, but there are some people who just don't look well in "their" designer clothes. Hilfiger then allegedly named several Asian races, apparently saying that he preferred if "these people" wouldn't wear their line — particularly Filipinos!
Though many were up in arms about this article (there were calls for a boycott of Hilfiger products), no one was ever quite sure what the designer had said, who he'd said it to, or even which ethnic group he'd slammed. One version had him saying, "If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them." More colorful renditions had him making his shocking revelation on national TV and Oprah Winfrey then throwing him off her show. (Oddly enough, the same story has been told about Liz Claiborne since 1991, that Oprah threw her off the show after Liz claimed she didn't design for Black women as "their hips are too big." That didn't happen either. See our Liz Biz page for more about that rumor, and the one that she gives part of the company's profits to the Church of Satan.)
A 1997 newspaper article debunking this tale noted:


In one cybermyth, Hilfiger supposedly told style reporter Elsa Klensch of CNN that he didn't think Asians looked good in his clothes. Then, as the story morphed, he told Winfrey the same thing about Blacks, at which point she threw him off the set.
Yet representatives of both shows deny Hilfiger ever appeared as a guest.

A 1999 article also carried denials from officials of the shows on which the incident is rumored to have taken place:

"Tommy Hilfiger has never appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show," said Audrey Pass, a spokeswoman for Winfrey. "Hilfiger's never appeared on CNN Style with Elsa Klensch," said Kathy Park of CNN.
Oprah herself did what she could to quell this slander. On Monday, 11 January 1999, she opened her show by adamantly denouncing the rumor, emphatically stating the following:


So I want to just set the record straight once and for all. The rumor claims that clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger came on this show and made racist remarks, and that I then kicked him out. I just want to say that is not true because it just never happened. Tommy Hilfiger has never appeared on this show. READ MY LIPS, TOMMY HILFIGER HAS NEVER APPEARED ON THIS SHOW. And all of [the] people who claim that they saw it, they heard it — it never happened. I've never even met Tommy Hilfiger.
Both Hilfiger and his company have steadfastly denied all forms of the rumor, and it has taken many. Depending on who you hear the whisper from, he slammed Asians, Filipinos or Blacks, on Oprah or Ricki Lake or BET News or Larry King Live or CNN — as a rumor, it's a marvel of non-specificity. According to a company statement posted to the Internet in March 1997:

Tommy Hilfiger did not make the alleged inappropriate racial comments. [. . .] Hilfiger wants his clothing to be enjoyed by people of all backgrounds and his collections are put together with the broadest cross-section of individuals in mind. To reinforce this, he features models of all ethnic backgrounds in his fashion shows and advertisements.
The company has answered the charges leveled against Hilfiger in its corporate FAQ, which very clearly states that not only didn't he say what's been ascribed to him, he's also never been on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, or CNN's Style with Elsa Klensch.
Cyberdenials or not, the rumor has legs. Earlier I mentioned it had been around at least nine months prior to its Internet explosion in late 1996. A March 1995 newspaper article noted:


Then there's the infamous disparaging "statement" the Parsons brothers and several others said they had heard that Hilfiger made about Blacks, particularly poor Blacks, wearing his clothes.
As with all rumors, there are several variations, and no one can say where or when Hilfiger made the comments. One woman said a friend heard him say it on BET News. A clerk at Burdines said he heard it was on the Ricki Lake show.

Hilfiger's being cast as a racist villain is especially unfortunate because his history as a designer shows him to be anything but. Adding color and movement to everyday clothes, his designs shot into popularity fueled by enthusiastic support from the Black community which adopted his fashion statements as its own. When Snoop Doggy Dogg wore a red, white, and blue Hilfiger rugby shirt on Saturday Night Live in March 1994, the word went out: Tommygear was cool. That was the same year the National Conference of Christians and Jews bestowed its National Humanitarian Award on the young designer. In 1995 Hilfiger was named Menswear Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and from there he's gone nowhere but up.
As immediately satisfying as it is to believe the old Liz Claiborne tale has updated itself by attaching to a newer, fresher designer, there's another likely explanation that must also be considered. As Hilfiger's clothing became more and more popular, it increasingly became a target for the Pacific Basin knock-off specialists. Hilfiger's statements that people should foreswear Asian or Filipino bootlegs of his clothes because cheap copies don't look good on anybody could easily have been misheard or misunderstood so that they were later remembered as statements to the effect that Asians or Filipinos themselves should not wear Hilfiger designs as they would make his clothes look bad.

Barbara "generalization GAP" Mikkelson

__________________

avhg1

Not true here is a link that tells a bit more.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/librar...y/aa121698.htm

__________________
I shake the devil's hand daily... I'd do it hourly, but my hand gets tired.

Averett

Quick work guys!

Oprah is still awesome

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

avhg1

Oh stink, that's the second time today that I'm too slow and someone posts while I'm writing. Must be Monday or something. I HATE MONDAYs!

__________________
I shake the devil's hand daily... I'd do it hourly, but my hand gets tired.

amonkie

Mal!!!! You beat me to it!

Whenever in doubt, check out snopes. They have been very reliable in the past. According that page, that rumor has been circulating around since '96- that's one very old email you've got there.

__________________
Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

lurkette

I can't imagine that this is true. Not that she kicked him off, but that he would have said that in the first place. He'd be shooting himself in the foot with his biggest customer base. Why the hell does he care where the money comes from as long as it ends up in his pocket?

I'm gonna go hit Snopes....

...as I suspected:

http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/hilfiger.asp

Claim: Designer Tommy Hilfiger shocked the world when he appeared on a television talk show and said, "If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them."

Status: False.

Origins: Rumors that Tommy Hilfiger made a racist remark exploded onto the Internet in the fall of 1996 after a news article purporting to be from a Philippines tabloid began making the online rounds. These self-same rumors had been in circulation at least nine months earlier, but the appearance of this article brought them to critical mass.

According to Cristina Peczon (author of the article), the revealing remark happened on CNN Style with Elsa Klensch, during an interview with both Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren on the latest fashion trends:

Hilfiger then supposedly butted in then with a comment, something like it is one thing for one's label to go popular worldwide, but there are some people who just don't look well in "their" designer clothes. Hilfiger then allegedly named several Asian races, apparently saying that he preferred if "these people" wouldn't wear their line — particularly Filipinos!

Though many were up in arms about this article (there were calls for a boycott of Hilfiger products), no one was ever quite sure what the designer had said, who he'd said it to, or even which ethnic group he'd slammed. One version had him saying, "If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them." More colorful renditions had him making his shocking revelation on national TV and Oprah Winfrey then throwing him off her show. (Oddly enough, the same story has been told about Liz Claiborne since 1991, that Oprah threw her off the show after Liz claimed she didn't design for Black women as "their hips are too big." That didn't happen either. See our Liz Biz page for more about that rumor, and the one that she gives part of the company's profits to the Church of Satan.)

A 1997 newspaper article debunking this tale noted:
In one cybermyth, Hilfiger supposedly told style reporter Elsa Klensch of CNN that he didn't think Asians looked good in his clothes. Then, as the story morphed, he told Winfrey the same thing about Blacks, at which point she threw him off the set.
Yet representatives of both shows deny Hilfiger ever appeared as a guest.

A 1999 article also carried denials from officials of the shows on which the incident is rumored to have taken place:

"Tommy Hilfiger has never appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show," said Audrey Pass, a spokeswoman for Winfrey. "Hilfiger's never appeared on CNN Style with Elsa Klensch," said Kathy Park of CNN.

Oprah herself did what she could to quell this slander. On Monday, 11 January 1999, she opened her show by adamantly denouncing the rumor, emphatically stating the following:

So I want to just set the record straight once and for all. The rumor claims that clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger came on this show and made racist remarks, and that I then kicked him out. I just want to say that is not true because it just never happened. Tommy Hilfiger has never appeared on this show. READ MY LIPS, TOMMY HILFIGER HAS NEVER APPEARED ON THIS SHOW. And all of [the] people who claim that they saw it, they heard it — it never happened. I've never even met Tommy Hilfiger.

Both Hilfiger and his company have steadfastly denied all forms of the rumor, and it has taken many. Depending on who you hear the whisper from, he slammed Asians, Filipinos or Blacks, on Oprah or Ricki Lake or BET News or Larry King Live or CNN — as a rumor, it's a marvel of non-specificity. According to a company statement posted to the Internet in March 1997:

Tommy Hilfiger did not make the alleged inappropriate racial comments. [. . .] Hilfiger wants his clothing to be enjoyed by people of all backgrounds and his collections are put together with the broadest cross-section of individuals in mind. To reinforce this, he features models of all ethnic backgrounds in his fashion shows and advertisements.
The company has answered the charges leveled against Hilfiger in its corporate FAQ, which very clearly states that not only didn't he say what's been ascribed to him, he's also never been on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, or CNN's Style with Elsa Klensch.

Cyberdenials or not, the rumor has legs. Earlier I mentioned it had been around at least nine months prior to its Internet explosion in late 1996. A March 1995 newspaper article noted:

Then there's the infamous disparaging "statement" the Parsons brothers and several others said they had heard that Hilfiger made about Blacks, particularly poor Blacks, wearing his clothes.

As with all rumors, there are several variations, and no one can say where or when Hilfiger made the comments. One woman said a friend heard him say it on BET News. A clerk at Burdines said he heard it was on the Ricki Lake show.

Hilfiger's being cast as a racist villain is especially unfortunate because his history as a designer shows him to be anything but. Adding color and movement to everyday clothes, his designs shot into popularity fueled by enthusiastic support from the Black community which adopted his fashion statements as its own. When Snoop Doggy Dogg wore a red, white, and blue Hilfiger rugby shirt on Saturday Night Live in March 1994, the word went out: Tommygear was cool. That was the same year the National Conference of Christians and Jews bestowed its National Humanitarian Award on the young designer. In 1995 Hilfiger was named Menswear Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and from there he's gone nowhere but up.
As immediately satisfying as it is to believe the old Liz Claiborne tale has updated itself by attaching to a newer, fresher designer, there's another likely explanation that must also be considered. As Hilfiger's clothing became more and more popular, it increasingly became a target for the Pacific Basin knock-off specialists. Hilfiger's statements that people should foreswear Asian or Filipino bootlegs of his clothes because cheap copies don't look good on anybody could easily have been misheard or misunderstood so that they were later remembered as statements to the effect that Asians or Filipinos themselves should not wear Hilfiger designs as they would make his clothes look bad.

__________________
"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Anatole France

lurkette

D'oh. Mal and I were posting at the same time. Too slow!!!

__________________
"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

- Anatole France

amonkie

Mal, you need to slow down on the coffee so all us normal people can catch up!

__________________
Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

ironman

You're kidding right?

__________________
If I agreed with you we´d both be wrong

water_boy1999

Mal gets the Brownie Button for speed responses!!!!!

It would suck if this rumor were true because I have a lot of Tommy in my wardrobe.

__________________
Doh!!!!


-Homer Simpson

radioguy

if it were true, it's a shame that it was said on a national forum like that....on the other hand, i know this is hypocrisy, but he at least had the guts to say what he really feels and doesn't just say what's best for his business or what people want to hear.

i know he didn't say it, i just wanted to point this out as if he did say this.

Averett

No, why would I be?

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

MSD

I remember hearing this via chain email 7 years ago. I remember hearing it disproved by both Tommy (lives near me so it was in the local paper) and Oprah (on TV)