Tommy Hilfiger Is Nautical by Nature

4:00 PM, September 10 2012

By Elana Fishman

The venue? A tented, bench-lined stretch of downtown New York's glorious High Line. Overhead, white garden lanterns swung back and forth in the evening breeze. We could have been in Cape Cod, Nantucket or perhaps Martha's Vineyard—one of those seaside vacation towns where Tommy Hilfiger spends all of his downtime, no doubt.

The clothes didn't break any new ground, sure—but when it comes to Tommy and his preppy legacy, that's precisely the point. We loved his section of pajama suiting, all covered in red, white and blue railroad stripes. His patriotic-hued zigzags, really just a kicky twist on the straight-arrow stripe, worked well on swimwear and silk day dresses in particular. Casual, color-blocked polo dresses got a sharp touch in leather, and crisp white shifts came with gold grommet lacing all up and down either their fronts or backs. Very '70s-YSL-gone-Americana. The perfect finishing touch? The chunky gold cuffs nearly every model wore, made to look like twisted rope. Spending our weekends out on the bay might be a pipe dream, but we'd settle for one of those little trinkets.

Photos: WWD/George Chinsee