Fashion entrepreneur Tommy Hilfiger's company has seen better days, but the clothing line that bears his name soldiers on.

One of nine kids raised in a strict Irish Catholic family, Tommy moved to the city, where he worked as a freelance designer and was introduced to Mohan Murnani, the entrepreneur who controlled licenses for everything from Gloria Vanderbilt jeans to Coca-Cola clothing. In 1984, launched Tommy Hilfiger, with Murnani supplying financial backing and Hilfiger articulating his "vision" to a team of designers. Hilfiger later bought back the company and watched it take off like a rocket in the early 1990s as both jocks and rappers bought into the look-appropriations of the American flag and red-white-and-blue sportswear. Before long, Tommy's name appeared on everything from bedding to perfume.

Those halcyon days have long passed. Hilfiger signed a dizzying number of licensing deals in the 1990s, a strategy that backfired when many of the company's products landed in the discount bin at low-end department stores. He sold his stake to Apax Partners in 2006 but Tommy remains principal designer and signs off on the creations of the brand's design team.

Hilfiger has long elicited resentment among his fashion peers, mainly because he positioned himself as an industry titan long before he'd paid his dues. In more recent years, Hilfiger has been slammed as a lowbrow copycat and mass-market hack making an ill-fated bid for reality stardom, a shameless knockoff, an imitation of Project Runway called The Cut. It lasted a season before its cancellation. [Image via Getty]