When you’re the son of an internationally famous fashion designer, some of that style savviness is bound to rub off on you, despite any best intentions. Take Richard “Ricky Hil” Hilfiger, the second of Tommy Hilfiger’s four children. Though the tatted-up rapper has taken a remarkably different professional path than his veteran designer dad — who remains primarily known for his classical, categorically preppy apparel creations — the younger Hilfiger appears to know artful architecture when he sees it, having paid $1.8 million for a striking home in the semi-remote, wilderness-adjacent L.A. County neighborhood of Topanga.
Though Hilfiger’s new house has more than a whiff of midcentury modern in its bones, tax records show the long and narrow abode was actually built in 1995. Tucked into a thrilling hairpin curve on a two-lane mountain road, the one-acre property clings to a steep ridge and offers a gravel motorcourt with space for at least a half-dozen cars, plus a detached two-car garage with upstairs guest quarters.
The nearly 2,500-square-foot structure itself is perhaps best described as bunker-like, though the forbidding architecture belies airy interiors that are flooded with natural light, thanks to big walls of glass and long ribbons of clerestory windows. The front door opens immediately into the spacious living room, which is divided from the adjoining den by a fireplace and enormous bookcase. Both spaces have what the listing describes as “breathtaking vistas,” over the ruggedly beautiful Santa Monica mountains.
On the opposite side of the living room lies an industrial-chic kitchen warmed by cherry wood cabinetry. Like all rooms in the house, the kitchen sports matte-finished concrete floors for natural cooling, and the space spills out to an informal dining room and covered loggia that connects the main house to the guesthouse, where there’s a bedroom suite tucked above the aforementioned garage.
The main house also offers two bedrooms, one of them tucked a semi-subterranean basement affair that could easily be converted into a music studio, gym, or lavish home office. Outside, the property’s terraced backyard overlooks the desolate landscape; patios hewn from decomposed granite offer ample space for al fresco entertaining.
Matt and Kelli Isbell of Compass held the listing; Sigal Diamant of Nelson Shelton Real Estate repped Hilfiger.