[KhaoticKharma]

The End

Other designers desire a broader reach. The Web site for the Sean John clothing company features two images: one of P. Diddy in a $495 pin-striped suit and another of a $30 T-shirt that says, in giant letters, no bitch
assness. P. Diddy is the only celebrity designer to win an award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. In 2004, he won Menswear Designer of the Year, the fashion equivalent of Best Actor in a Leading Role. That year he also became the first star turned designer to open a freestanding U.S. boutique. With a team of helpers and a $100 million cash infusion from Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies, Diddy designs the Sean John men’s suit and sportswear lines. Licenses for shirts, underwear, sunglasses, and shoes ensure that fans of the performer, actor, and Bad Boy Entertainment CEO can wear the label head to toe. Diddy broke into fashion in 1999 with a hat and a baggy T-shirt, using his first two (real) names in cursive script as a logo. He was inspired by Fubu, a blockbuster in the emerging hip-hop-inspired “urban” market.
“He didn’t do this because he needed another check,” says Jeff Tweedy, vice president of branding and licensing for Sean John. “He embraced designers and went to fashion shows and learned. He started wearing cashmere sweaters. Instead of bling, it was Harry Winston sophisticated.” Tweedy’s experience at other celebrity lines—Beyoncé’s House of Dereon and Shaq’s short-lived TWISM—was less interesting to Diddy than his stints at Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren. “We called Sean John an ‘urban young men’s sophisticated line with a touch of contemporary,’ ” Tweedy says. “We knew we’d be put in the urban category, but we had a cleaner and more mature look.” Still, the line showed baggy jeans and logo T-shirts in the beginning, as it does today. It branched out into slimmer silhouettes, though, and clothes you could wear to an office job. Sales climbed to a reported $450 million a year. There were failures: It was once the second-best-selling line at Blooming-dale’s, but the department store dropped it five years ago; the suit line languished on Macy’s floors; a women’s division flopped less than a year after its 2005 launch. Yet “Diddy has kept himself relevant in the media,” says Durand Guion, men’s fashion director of Macy’s West. “The exposure makes the consumer keep coming back to his line.”
Jennifer Lopez, Diddy’s former girlfriend, watched him build the apparel empire. She, too, would improve the reputation of the celebrity designer category when she and Andy Hilfiger, brother of Tommy, teamed up on JLO by Jennifer Lopez in 2001. But the enterprise, initially a success, has faltered. JLO by Jennifer Lopez only sells outside the United States; the additional lines justsweet and Sweetface don’t feature Lopez on their Web sites. “I am not sure that the customer understood the role that Jennifer played,” says Simone Tolifson, who stopped ordering justsweet for Macy’s West. “Her name was not on the label. There have been quality issues. She owns the company but doesn’t design the line. It’s as if she doesn’t want to be affiliated with it.” Lopez’s focus on family life could edge her lines onto the scrap heap along with duds by Pamela Anderson, Thalia Sodi, Snoop Dogg, model Eva Herzigova, and rappers Eve and Foxy Brown. Even John Malkovich tried his hand and gave up.
The success that fashion companies and retailers have enjoyed lately with guest-designer collaborations has led more of them to extend invitations to celebrities. In turn, “collabs” have allowed stars to dip their toes in the business with minimal risk. Madonna used H&M as a research lab last year, testing a tracksuit-based collection and later a more tailored group of basics. Only in this decade have celebrities crossed the threshold of selective high-end stores. L.A.M.B., Chloë Sevigny, the Row (by the Olsens), and William Rast sell at top-tier boutiques. Elle Macpherson Intimates released a luxury “Boudoir” collection two years ago. It’s the only lingerie line carried in the posh Melrose Avenue shop Maxfield. In the past, a star had to choose between mass-market clothing with a whiff of tackiness or image-enhancing vanity projects. Now they can have both. Milla Jovovich’s pricey designer line, Jovovich-Hawk, operated at a loss for years. That’s not a problem today, since her new low-priced collaborations with Target and Mango ensure she’s got money for fabric and thread. She needn’t worry that her films do well for her lines to keep attracting attention. Movie flops, bad albums, and even scandal are more detrimental to a star’s fashion label than run-ins with the law. Paris Hilton’s sportswear line arrived in stores just as she was being locked up for violating DUI-related probation. “We were a little concerned,” says Tolifson. “But she was wearing jeans from the line when she exited jail, and it boosted sales.”