(FORTUNE Magazine) – Presidential candidates might learn something from men's clothing seller Tommy Hilfiger, whose diversity-laced marketing has made his collegiate clothes as chic in country clubs like the Congressional as they are "fly" in urban neighborhoods.

"Tommy Hilfiger is the most exciting story in the apparel universe," raves analyst Faye I. Landes of Smith Barney. Got that right. The stock has doubled to about $35 a share since early last year.

Hilfiger didn't have the wind at his back, either. Since 1991, while Seventh Avenue was having one disastrous year after another, Hilfiger's sales have jumped nearly sixfold, to $321 million, and profits have bloused from $3.3 million to $41 million. "Today, Tommy is absolutely No. 1 with my customers," says Sheila Terry, a merchandise manager for the Doneger Group in New York City, a buying office for retailers.

Hilfiger, 44, one of nine siblings from a middle-class background, began hawking jeans out of his car in 1970. He eventually parlayed that into a chain of shops that he sold in 1980. When he moved to New York to design, he had the temerity, in 1985, to name himself "one of America's top four designers," on a billboard in Times Square.

Actually, Hilfiger calls himself a "redesigner" of the classics, a less risky strategy given the frequent high-fashion fatalities of the Nineties. Clearly influenced by Ralph Lauren-another stylist never overburdened by originality-Hilfiger thrives by pushing a strikingly different image than Lauren.

The Bronx-born Lauren sells a patrician, neo-Eisenhower lifestyle, and brilliantly at that. Hilfiger, who hails from Elmira, New York, cultivates a more democratic image. His ads have always featured models of various hues; rivals like Calvin Klein and Nautica have until recently rarely used black models. "Tommy has never shied away from America's multicultural society," says Joe Dolchi, editor-in-chief of Details magazine, which is a beneficiary of Hilfiger's ad budget. "Nobody feels left out."

In New York City the Hilfiger brand is the badge of choice. "Hilfiger is on top now with me and my boys because his designs are fresh, and we love his fierce name," says Ron Augustine, a 17-year-old student from Brooklyn. Hilfiger stays close to his urban and suburban constituencies, always looking to create lines around trendy sports such as snowboarding. But he stays within the context of his salable, preppie style. Now in stores is Hilfiger's line of golf clothes. Take that, Ralph.

--Faye Rice