Over the years, as the faces history made famous have passed away, it’s impossible to fully describe their legacy without giving some attention to their clothes. When Dorothy Height, the longstanding leader of the National Council of Negro Women, died in 2010, her formal hats and suits required a eulogy almost as much as the woman herself. With her words, she called for equal rights. With her clothes, she declared herself worthy of them.

Few fashion brands have been so closely linked to a modern cultural and social revolution as the Tommy Hilfiger Co. Rappers took its preppy polo shirts, dungarees, and boldly printed rugby shirts and made them their own by wearing them three and four sizes too large. They took the sportswear most closely associated with the Mayflower privileged and reappropriated it, creating a rallying cry for the urban, the poor, the feared.

The designer, who is white, has had a close but complicated relationship with African-Americans. Early in the company’s history, Hilfiger was the rare businessman to enthusiastically embrace the predominantly black crowd of nascent rappers, entrepreneurs, and rabble-rousers who loved his clothes. While other brands eyed these black artists and provocateurs with suspicion, Hilfiger put performers such as P. Diddy, Coolio and Naughty by Nature’s Treach on his runway before the pop world had any idea who they were. Hilfiger offered rappers mainstream validation; they sent his sales skyrocketing.

Source: Daily Beast