InDesign
Once upon a time, in a fashion industry far far away, celebrities weren’t designers. Designers were designers. These days, the title may as well be included in a swag bag and distributed at VIP lounges in Hollywood.
Among the most recent stars to hyphenate their credits are Ashlee Simpson, who has designed a line of tees for Wet Seal, her fiance Pete Wentz, whose Clandestine Industries tees are sold at Nordstrom, Elizabeth Hurley, who launched a line of swimwear for MNG, Heidi Klum who designed a line of skinny jeans and fashion tops for Jordache, and Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls, whose Catty Couture animal print collection has yet to announce distributors. Celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Penelope Cruz have joined the fashion ranks in recent years.
The list doesn’t stop there. The trend that started with A-list celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani and Sean Combs, has now reached its non-discriminant hand deep into the pits of Hollywood to pull out complete lines from none other than reality TV stars.
Lauren Conrad showed her collection during L.A. Fashion Week in March and has just launched three handbags with Linea Pelle. Her nemesis Heidi Montag launched Heidiwood for Anchor Blue last month. Whitney Port plans to debut Eve & A in the fall. All three girls star in MTV’s "The Hills" and each have expressed an interest in fashion. Although industry marketing executives evidently have a grasp on reality TV now, they have yet to hone in on "Project Runway" alums.
As celebrity designers only gain momentum, some question whether aspiring designers would have more luck realizing their fashion dreams in Hollywood than with an actual fashion degree. Carolyn Thomas, fashion design program chair at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Green Valley, notes that a celebrity simply has to be a celebrity to get a line, whereas fashion students struggle.
"Marc Jacobs started at 19, went bankrupt about three times and finally made it at 40," she said. "To me, a designer is a person who can do it all. (Celebrity designers) just give approval on something that a student just out of college probably really designed."
Thomas admits that the celebrity craze is a decent means of wetting feet before fashion fledglings dive into their own collections, but would rather see them get credit than the celebrity who has lent her marketability to the project. On the opposite end, Andre Leon Talley, editor-at-large of Vogue, supports the concept completely.
"I think it’s great. Anyone who wants to be a designer should be," he said between shows at LA Fashion Week. "It’s the American way: free enterprise."
Talley added that some celebrities demonstrate better knowledge of the craft than others but declined to say who should keep their day job. As for his favorite: "I love J.Lo!"
Contact fashion reporter Xazmin Garza at xgarza@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0477.