Celebs as Fashion Designers
Beyonce, Jay Z & Gwen Stefani $core as fashion designers
As celebs increasingly turn to clothing lines to extend the lifestyle of their brands, they're discovering a picky public that's over the novelty...and not really buying.
Anyone who is anyone on the A-list – or the B, C and D – seems to have a line of clothing, accessories or fragrance these days.
J. Lo (JLO by Jennifer Lopez), Beyonce (House of Dereon) & Gwen Stefani (L.A.M.B.) originally led the pack. Now, the field is getting crowded: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (clothing, accessories, home décor), Jay Z (Rocawear), Justin Timberlake (William Rast menswear), Kimora Lee Simmons (Baby Phat), Jessica Simpson (clothing, denim & shoes) Hilary Duff (clothing, accessories, fragrance), Jaime Pressly (sportswear), Pamela Anderson (lingerie), Blink 182’s Travis Barker (clothing), and Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue (a menswear line called Royal Underground).
In the lead are L.A.M.B., Baby Phat, and Rocawear. In the it's-too-early-to-tell category are House of Dereon, William Rast (Justin Timberlake), and Sean John, who exited womenswear and is planning to launch a line for juniors. And lagging at the rear are Jessica Simpson, Nicky and JLO.
"JLO has softened a lot," Rob Smith, executive vice president and general merchandise manager for Macy's East, recently told WWD. In fact, celeb lines as a whole are no longer exhibiting magic at the cash register, and the chain even dropped the Chick by Nicky Hilton line. "I'm not sure it's because of the product or the fact that Jennifer just isn't out there as much as she used to be, but the line isn't performing like it used to. I think the idea of the celebrity is still huge, it's just that when it comes to fashion, no one has done it well."
According to Michael Wood, vice president and director of syndicated research at Teenage Research Unlimited, the novelty of the celeb as fashion designer is gone. "The mind-set used to be that a musician was a musician, but when they decided to launch a clothing line, that was big news," he explains. "Now the novelty has worn off, and it's just not news anymore."
A large reason is that while celebs enjoy the money they earn from having their own fashion labels, they are often reluctant to actually wear them. "Young people want to wear what the celebrities wear, not the label they have their names on," says Wood. And most stars get their looks from what professional stylists pull together for them, making it difficult to translate that into specific garments or accessories.
"The thing about it is that nearly all celebrities have stylists that make them look the way they do," explains Abbey Samet of the Doneger Group. "It's very hard to translate that look into a product line, which is really what the customer is buying into." (Jessica Simpson was actually sued by her licensee for $100 for failing to wear and promote her Princy and JS by Jessica Simpson lines.) The sole exception seems to be Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. line, which the singer actually wears – thereby introducing a significant level of credibility. "Gwen has always had that style about her that gives her line that credibility," Wood said. "She wears her own clothes and she really creates what her customers are looking for in a clothing line."
A fashionesque offshoot of the trend is the reverse: instead of the celeb as designer, it's the designer as celeb. "The newest emerging celebrity is the designer, there was Viktor & Rolf for H&M, Behnaz Sarafpour for Target — these things are what customers like to hear about," she says. "The customer has wised up a lot and, in turn, it's become more challenging for a celebrity to be a designer."
