When Tommy Hilfiger was a 12-year-old boy, he would build go-karts out of four-wheeled grocery carts or baby carriages—anything, really, that might send him hurtling down a hill fast enough to make his stomach drop. From the way the wind rushed past his ear to the way the pavement blurred beneath him, he was simply hooked.
The location in which he grew up only fanned the flames of this obsession. Hailing from Elmira, New York, meant that Hilfiger was only half an hour away from the legendary Watkins Glen racetrack. This was where the Formula One American Grand Prix happened for over two decades throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s.
As a teenager, Hilfiger would hop the fence, sneak into the pits, and stand there, wide-eyed, breathing in the gasoline and burnt rubber. The cars were monstrous and beautiful. The drivers, gods in fireproof suits. The heady atmosphere born from the international mess of campers and partygoers only enamoured him even more. But what really stuck with him—what he didn’t see coming—was the way those uniforms looked up close. The patches, the logos, the way they clung onto the drivers like declarations of allegiance. To a teenage Hilfiger, they felt authentic—but more importantly, they looked cool.
Long after Hilfiger had established his presence firmly in the fashion industry, he still could never really let go of this love for racing. So he did what any designer with an unfinished childhood dream would do—he stitched himself into the sport. In the ‘90s, he sponsored Team Lotus. At the time, Tommy Hilfiger was the only fashion brand to enter the Formula One arena.
At last, the red, white and blue of the Tommy Hilfiger flag sat proudly alongside the other emblems he’d once admired from behind a fence. But that didn’t quite scratch the itch. He would take things a step further in 1998 by becoming Ferrari’s clothing sponsor, designing their driver uniforms and team kits.
His most iconic collaboration in the world of Formula One, however, wouldn’t come until the brand became the clothing sponsor for Mercedes-AMG F1™ in 2018. That same year, Lewis Hamilton would come on board as a global ambassador for Tommy Hilfiger. This paved the way for the line between sport and fashion to be blurred, allowing for collaborations like the revolutionary TOMMYXLEWIS four-season runway partnership to be realised.
And now, in an oddly amusing twist, he’s doing it all over again—but this time, for a movie with a fictional driver.
You’ve probably heard about it by now, the upcoming F1® film. Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a washed-up ’90s prodigy whose career was derailed by an accident on the track. Thirty years later, he’s coaxed out of retirement to lead a struggling Formula 1 team, simultaneously mentoring a brash rookie. The premise is more than enough to convince a Lightning McQueen apologist like me to tune in—but we’re not here to talk about the film. In fact, we’re not here to talk about Hilfiger at all.
Idris, who will be playing the role of a hotshot rookie called Joshua Pearce, became a Tommy Hilfiger brand ambassador in 2023—and for good reason. Hilfiger believes Idris is on the verge of something seismic. “This role is going to launch him into a whole new stratosphere,” he says. “It’s a major moment for him, the sport, and culture—and I can’t wait to see it all come to life on screen.”
Honestly, it’s hard not to imagine Hilfiger in the fictional F1® world treating Pearce the way the real one does Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton, the real-life champion. Joshua Pearce, the fictional upstart. Both dressed by Tommy. Idris himself admits the partnership “felt like a natural extension of playing a racecar driver in the film.”
Racing, however, didn’t come naturally to the 33-year-old British actor. Unlike Hilfiger, who grew up idolising men in helmets and flame-resistant onesies, Idris grew up idolising men in shin guards and football cleats. In fact, he spent much of his adolescence thinking he was going to end up a footballer—until Messi, or the thought that he would never be Messi, steered him somewhere else.
So he turned to acting, enrolling in Theatre, Film & Television studies—a decision that horrified his mother. As the youngest sibling amongst lawyers, regional managers, and IT engineers, this allowed Idris the freedom to pursue whatever he wanted. And for most of his life, that dream had been football. Think about that—how good he must have been, how certain that future seemed, for his mother to mourn the loss of a football career that never was.
On the other hand, Idris’ interest in supercars and racing developed in the background through playing Gran Turismo and F1 video games with his brothers, which ultimately led him to attend his first race in Budapest. It was here that he witnessed Hamilton cross the finish line first. Talk about providence.
Damson Idris’ rise has been silently brewing in the background. You might remember him from Snowfall, John Singleton’s long-running 2017 crime drama where he played Franklin Saint, a young street hustler navigating the world of drugs in Los Angeles. He also appeared in projects such as Swarm (2023), Outside the Wire (2021), and the Black Mirror (2019) episode “Smithereens,” where he played a social media company intern, while Andrew Scott took on the role of the desperate rideshare driver who held him hostage.
But F1® The Movie—with its reported USD300 million budget—is his biggest yet. If the rumour holds water, this makes the movie one of the most expensive films ever made.
Idris isn’t easing off the gas anytime soon either. Right now, he’s deep in production for Children of Blood and Bone, an adaptation of the afro-fantasy novel by Tomi Adeyemi. You’ll find his name jumbled in a hat alongside actors like Idris Elba, Viola Davis, and Cynthia Erivo. With an ensemble like that, the film is already humming with promise.
But beyond the glitzy names—as a South London native raised amongst first-generation immigrants in strong African and Afro-Caribbean communities—being part of an afro-centric story is something he holds dear to his heart.
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, he’s also recently been announced to play Miles Davis in Miles & Juliette, the upcoming period romance produced by none other than Mick Jagger—who once called Davis “inarguably one of the most influential and important musicians of the 20th Century.” No pressure.
What’s striking about Idris isn’t just his résumé, though. It’s his refusal to compromise. It’s clear Idris leans towards projects with stories he resonates with, and it’s this quality that allows him to keep his artistic soul intact. In an interview with Gentleman’s Journal in 2020, he once quoted Nina Simone, “an artist’s job is to reflect the times.”
Three years later, it’s refreshing to see that this is still something he stands by based on the projects he’s chosen to undertake. Maybe it’s this confidence in the kind of work he wants to put out—the artistic integrity of it all, that causes Hilfiger to have such confidence in the man. Or maybe it’s the flash and the charisma that accompany him.
Let’s rewind to the Met Gala, where Idris not only pulled up in the APXGP F1 car from the film, but also came wearing a bedazzled helmet and the fictional racing suit from F1®. What he did next, however, might’ve been the most defining moment in the 2025 Met Gala. With the help of two assistants, his racing suit was ripped off to reveal a sleek, rouge tartan three-piece tuxedo from Tommy Hilfiger. Here’s something you might not have known, though: the white and black racing suit? That was also Tommy Hilfiger’s doing.
But that was only a teaser. In fact, Hilfiger designed an entire line called The APXGP Collection, inspired by the fictional team. It channels the inescapable cool of the racing suits and the classic iconography of the sponsors’ graphics, reimagining it through the clean, cinematic polish of the big screen.
“Our goal was to fuse the innovation, precision and adrenaline of Formula 1 with our bold, vibrant and confident DNA,” says Hilfiger. “Every piece is designed to make a statement, creating a sophisticated take on trackside style.”
From moto-emblazoned mechanic shirts to tailored Japanese denim jeans, a varsity-meets-moto jacket in vegan leather to a merino knit polo—the collection manages to capture that delicate alchemy between track and glamour in a way that’s authentic and true to Tommy.
Spanning 21 pieces, you’ll have a fair crop of options in the collection to pick from. But to assuage the indecisive, we asked Hilfiger and Idris for their personal picks. For Hilfiger, it’s the varsity-meets-moto jacket, which “fuses racing influences with classic American prep,” and, in his words, “bridges the world of cinema and fashion.”
Idris, ever the enthusiast, couldn’t choose just one. The red quilted jacket, modelled after the piece worn by his character in the film makes him feel like Joshua Pearce. The tailored Japanese denim is another favourite of his, “they’re sleek but still easy to move in, which feels true to track life and my own personal style off-camera.”
There is, however, an everyday piece he finds himself always coming back to. The all-white polo with team graphics; it’s clean, but still has that attitude and feels like everyday luxury with a sporty twist. “You can pair it with the underlayer shirt for a crisp, layered finish, then add the red cap to give it just the right pop.”
And just like that, Damson Idris finds himself blazing a trail on the F1 tracks—but not in the way you’d expect. Fashion blurs into motion, and motion becomes fiction. Idris may not feel the wind whipping past his ear or see the ground blur beneath his feet, but he is moving towards something big. And he’s not slowing down.
Animation: Joan Tai
