Tommy and Ally Hilfiger Talk Family

Designer Tommy Hilfiger circles the globe preaching the gospel of prep and dropping slat-board beach cottages out of the sky, yet when his designer daughter Ally forgets her deodorant at a recent benefit in Connecticut, he's just a dad.

"Do you need someone to go back to the house to get it?" he asked, before she was honored recently by Time for Lyme, a nonprofit that funds research into Lyme and tick-born diseases (Ally has suffered with the disease for 19 years). Ally's every-daughter response: "No, dad. Fix your tie."

It's a completely unaffected exchange for a pair who are pretty close to American fashion royalty: Tommy started his business in 1985 and his daughter has followed in his sartorial footsteps, recently co-founding a new label called NAHM.

Here, the refreshingly normal father-daughter pair tells us their deep and decidedly non-dark secrets, from Tommy's craving for family to their refusal to share any hardship or hard feelings. [The Feast CT]

What do you crave most?
T.H.: At this point in my lifetime, family.
A.H.: I crave the ocean.

Do you know your limits?
A.H.: Yes, definitely.
T.H.: It took me a while, but yes.

What won't you share?
T.H.: What won't we share, any hardship.
A.H.: I agree, any hardship, any hard feelings.

What great idea should have been yours?
T.H.: Apple ... Missed that one!
A.H.: Which great idea should have been mine? Starting a charity for Lyme disease.

What's been on your to do list for the longest time?
A.H.: Oh, cleaning out my closet.
T.H.: Finding or helping Ally get cured. That's been on my to do list for a very long time. Well, we checked it off and went backwards, we regressed and then took many step backwards to go forwards.

If you were going to win a medal for something tomorrow, what would it be for?
A.H.: Integrity and honesty.
T.H.: I'd take that Nobel Peace Prize, peace in the world.

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