Tommy Hilfiger recently sat down with Businessweek to discuss his eponymous label and its history. In addition to talking about his start in the fashion industry and breaking out with his own brand, Hilfiger discusses how the brand was embraced by the hip-hop scene before quickly falling off the map. Check out a brief excerpt below and head to Businessweek to check out the full piece.

There was a bit of controversy at the time because the classic preppy base abandoned the Tommy brand when it was adopted by the hip-hop community. And when hip-hop moved on to a new trend, you were left hanging.

Look, it fueled a lot of growth, but it took us away from our roots. We came back to our roots 10 years ago; that’s when our business started to really stabilize and grow again. When people ask me advice, I say stick to who you are. Stick to your guns. There is an image and attitude to most brands and that’s really important. I like to stick to my heritage and not chase trends and at that point we were chasing trends. Chasing trends was easy but it was dangerous. It’s more important to me now to be consistent.