Name: The Paris Hilton Brand: How a Persona Generated $4B in Retail Sales
Uploaded: 2026-03-15T17:34:56.000Z
Duration: 14 min 57 s
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Adverbs of degree

I was just very good at pretending to be one.

This is Paris Hilton, the pop culture icon, recording artist, DJ and businesswoman often described as the original influencer.

Here in New York, at a hotel steeped in Hilton family history, we discuss creating the character that made her a household name.

I realized at a very young age the power of a personal brand owning.

It's just incredible to be able to take my brand and my business to the next level and proving the critics wrong.

I didn't want to be known as the Hilton hotel granddaughter.

I'm Tonya Breyer, and I've traveled to New York to meet Paris Hilton.

I was born here, so I always feel like I'm coming home.

Paris grew up between here and Los Angeles, where she lives today.

But it was her time here in New York as a teenager that marked the start of her public profile.

I was living here at the Waldorf Astoria, and

my sister and I just started getting invited to every single event and fashion show.

And it's just like this whole new world opened up to me.

And then all of a sudden, I was on page six every day.

All the different fashion magazines, tabloids, and everything.

And then just kind of creating this character almost, and

then getting the simple life, and then that's how the world got to know me.

What do you think was the biggest misconception about you at that time?

People assume just because of my last name that, you know, she must be spoiled.

Since I was a teenager, I've been working very hard to build this brand and all the product lines and everything I have, none of this was handed to me.

This is something that I worked very hard to do all myself.

But of course, I will always acknowledge that I'm very lucky and privileged to come from my background and to be able to be exposed to meeting all these different types of people in this world.

I also know a lot of people who come from these type of families, and

a lot of them, you know, they don't do anything with their lives, and

And that's something I always saw where I was like, I don't want to be like one of those people.

And I really always also saw success as freedom.

Today, Paris reaches well over 65 million followers across her social channels.

Yet the OG influencer built her brand before social media even existed.

For so long, I always looked up to my grandfather Barron and we were extremely close and he was my business mentor and I was always fascinated about what he built with Hilton Hotels.

And I also didn't want to be known as the Hilton hotel granddaughter.

Moving here opened up my eyes to this whole new world.

And then I noticed just all these different brands and companies were reaching out to me to offer to pay me to wear their products or kind of like what people do now today with influencing.

Back then, there wasn't really a word for it.

So yeah, I realized at a very young age the power of a personal brand.

In 2023, Goldman Sachs estimated the creator economy's value at $250 billion and projected it could reach 480 billion by 2027, almost doubling in size.

Do you take credit, Paris, for the success and scale of the creator economy?

Now I feel really proud that I was always very ahead of my time and it wasn't like I ever just planned like, oh, I want to be, you know, the original influencer.

It happened very authentically where I was just living my life and the tabloids and media loved following it and there was no one really doing what I was doing.

And now is like a multi billion dollar industry.

So I feel really proud to have helped pioneer that and create the blueprint.

I think it's incredible how people can really turn their personal brand into their own empire.

And I love that I can inspire others to follow their dreams and do that and create something that is theirs.

In 2006, Paris raised eyebrows when she launched a music career.

I was singing and playing the piano and the violin since I was a little girl.

So doing my first album was so exciting and was just amazing and just another way to help build my brand.

Her first single, Stars Are Blind, surprised critics with its reggae inspired sound.

Even though the guys are crazy Even though the stars are blind it was certified gold by the Recording Industry association of America for achieving half a million sales and downloads.

I'm really just so proud of that first album, especially Stars Are Blind.

It's just such a timeless and iconic pop song and I love that people still just love and enjoy it today.

In the 2010s, Paris pivoted away from pop and became a regular on the EDM scene.

Reports at the time said she could command up to a million dollars for a DJ set and several Outlets called her the highest paid female DJ in the world.

Paris Hilton Co founded 1111 Media alongside industry veteran Bruce Gersh, bringing together all her creative and commercial endeavors.

I've been in this industry for so long and I'm involved in so many different business verticals and I have so many different product lines.

So I really wanted to take all of my businesses and put it under one umbrella.

Plus I've been such a multi hyphenate for so long and a lot of these agencies weren't equipped for someone like me.

So I really just wanted to build a team that had the most brilliant people for every different vertical of my business.

So it's just incredible just to be able to take my brand and my business to the next level.

It's like almost 30 people on the team now and we do everything from producing television shows, podcasts, films, building IP and product lines and music, the metaverse, real estate, and

then also getting to partner with different brands and bring them into pop culture.

The possibilities are endless and every day there's something new and exciting happening.

Inspired by Disney, 1111 Media is built on a flywheel model comprising three segments.

Content such as Netflix series, cooking with Paris, community or fan engagement and commerce, meaning product lines like this cookware range.

With today's age especially, you need all of those for a company having the content, the community with it as well, and

So it's just our business model for the media company.

It's amazing that we're able to do those on such a large scale.

Globally, Paris licensed consumer products have generated $4 billion in retail sales.

More than half of that figure has come from her perfume business alone.

Since 2004, she's released more more than 30 fragrances.

I've seen so many others try and maybe they have one or two and then it just doesn't happen anymore.

But I think with me, everything is created by me.

This is products that I actually love and I want to wear.

I see some other people where they don't even wear their real products.

The consumer knows when it's not really authentic and it's not you.

Paris is a fourth generation member of one of the world's best known business dynasties.

Hilton founded Hilton Hotels and her grandfather Baron Hilton led the expanded corporation for decades.

As Paris was growing up, in 1949, Conrad took over management of this hotel, the Waldorf Astoria, New York.

He famously described it as the greatest of them all.

The Hilton family hasn't owned a stake in the hotel chain since 2007.

But the Waldorf Astoria still holds a place in Paris's heart.

And this portrait of Conrad is displayed at the hotel's Lexington Avenue entrance.

When you see the photograph of your great grandfather Conrad, why do you think he loved the hotel so much?

This was something that was a dream of his to acquire this hotel one day.