Spot the difference - celebrity designers overload

[Lena]

excellent new article on the recent overflow of celebrity designers, posted at The Guardian of today

First it was Madonna, now it's Kate Moss, next week it's Lily Allen - celebrity fashion collections are the style story of the summer. But will wearing them make you look like a star ... or a tragic wannabe? Three writers find out.

Wednesday May 2, 2007
The Guardian

As chance would have it, my day as Kate Moss started by me going on the Today programme to talk about Kate Moss. There are so many postmodern layers to this scenario I hardly know where to begin, which is just as well, as I don't imagine Kate fusses too much about postmodern layers. I reckoned the poppy print summer dress was the best Kate outfit for the occasion - probably better than the denim hotpants that might have thrown John Humphrys off his rhythm, thereby knocking large swaths of middle-class Britain off kilter. Such concern was unnecessary, however, because it was Ed Stourton, not Humphrys, in the chair. Stourton, I am almost positive, raised an appraising eyebrow over the microphone at my dress, doubtless admiring how the poppy print has a satisfyingly vintage look to it.

The poppy dress is undoubtedly my favourite piece in Kate Moss's new collection for Topshop because, almost uniquely, it doesn't require its wearer to be Kate Moss's physical twin to look halfway OK. I had been harshly reminded of this peril the night before at the range's launch event, when Moss turned up looking fabulous in a long slinky red dress. Pah, what a cheater, I thought, turning up to the party for her own clothing range in Galliano. A few minutes later when I was burrowing through the rails I came across a long red dress that seemed to be made out of cheap mesh. God, look at this tat, I thought dismissively before realising, of course, that it was the very same dress Moss was wearing. This is why she made a reputed £30m last year and I did not: because she makes everything look like haute couture and I, um, don't. Which rather raises the question whether it is wise for us all to be copying Moss's wardrobe, seeing as she is hardly a reliable guide.
Of course, Ms Moss is not the only celebrity to be launching her own fashion range this summer. In the coming weeks the streets of Britain will resemble the backstage of Stars in their Eyes, swarming with very specific lookalikes. Whereas for the past few years the trend has been to get fashion designers to create ranges for the high street - Stella McCartney at H&M, Roland Mouret at Gap - this year retailers have simply gone for the jugular and got celebrities to design the clothes themselves. Really, you have to admire the logic: if the reason the majority of high-street shoppers have heard of Roland Mouret is because Cameron Diaz was photographed wearing his dresses, then why bother with Mouret when you could just get Diaz to knock out a range of clothes? Diaz hasn't, as yet, done this, but I wouldn't be overly shocked if there was a Cameron Diaz surfwear line come July - mark my words. Heck, it's only surprising that she hasn't already, what with Matt Helders, the drummer from the Arctic Monkeys, making a clothing line for Supremebeing [sic] and Paul Weller doing a limited range of shirts for Ben Sherman. Never mind that the former is not exactly a fashion icon and barely a celebrity, and the latter's image is best summed up as "grumpy".

Admittedly, celebrities' lack of designing skills might be seen by the naive few as a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to creating clothing lines. Ditto the scepticism surrounding the extent of their involvement in sewing the actual clothes. But adjudicating Madonna or Lily Allen's skill at cross-stitch is not the point of these ranges: it's to let customers dress up like them.

This is particularly true in the case of Kate Moss, whose range for Topshop is overtly based on her own clothes. It's a bit of a rum proposition, seeing as Topshop has made good hay out of copying Moss for years, but I guess at least this time it has her overt blessing.

It's here that we come to the downside of my new, already beloved, Kate Moss poppy dress: it is such an obvious copy of something Moss has been photographed wearing - as, of course, it is meant to be. One could just about get away with the surprisingly flattering cropped jeans and vests from the collection without looking too much of a tragic wannabe mini-me, but a distinctively printed dress is a bit trickier to pass off as mere coincidence. If part of Moss's appeal has always been her originality, then wearing a dress that literally thousands of others have also bought, even if it does have Moss's imprimatur, does seem to bypass a certain degree of logic. Although I received nothing but compliments for my dress at the office, these were invariably preceded by the question: "Oh, is that the Kate Moss dress?"

This is even truer for the lemon pleated one-shoulder dress reckoned to be one of the collection's fastest sellers. Partly this is because the photographs of Moss in the dress that inspired it have been reprinted so many times, and partly - granted - because the sight of me in a yellow party dress in the office probably does merit some kind of comment. But also it's because the range itself has been so heavily publicised in the media. And while I can just about cope with being out-starred by a supermodel, I'm not so happy about being outdone by a £120 dress.

Kate Moss's collection for Topshop is available from Topshop outlets nationwide ... Yeah, right - dream on, ladies! Unless you were in the queue at 6am yesterday and have the stamina and concentration of a Thai boxer, these clothes are as unattainable as the supermodel herself. It's all about exclusivity, yeah? Fashion may be getting more democratic but they're not going to make it easy for you, you know.

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click here to continue reading the rest of THE GUARDIAN article

 

[thefunkykitten]

excellent article! so fed up of the celebdesigners!!

 

[disco54]

^^^ yeah its stupid.....

 

[SomethingElse]

I think so too!

 

[PerfectPerfect]

I think just so many people are fed up with the mediocre collaborations, even with designers, not just celebrities. The collections are incomplete. They range from apparel, accessories, to bathing suits, but have no shoes to go with and that for me throws it off. The constructions are always subpar. (I'm still waiting to see who's gonna do a collab with Forever 21).

But the principle is that people/celebrities who get dressed by stylists should not be pretending to make clothing lines with themselves as the spokesperson. The market is oversaturated. And are happening too frequently and repetitively.

What is there to anticipate when we know exactly what is going to go on next?

 

[Melisande]

I think just so many people are fed up with the mediocre collaborations, even with designers, not just celebrities.

I think there is something in this. We are way, way too quick to lash out at so-called "celebrity designers" simply by virtue of their fame, when there are many more "designer designers" whose products are far worse.

Moreover, the term "celebrity designer" is offensive. It implies that simply because an artist just so happened to gain fame in another field before doing so as a designer, that this person is somehow less talented and able to design clothes properly. "Admittedly, celebrities' lack of designing skills"...this sample of discrimination gets the prize. Replace the word "celebrity" for any other group of people...you get my point.

The reality, of course, is that hardly any "celebrity collections" of any worth exist at present, and that these people are doing hardly any real designing themselves, simply using their names to sell clothes. But what is branding if not selling on a name, anyway? If Chanel can sell perfume and makeup simply on the brand's image and "mystique", why not a singer? Sure, it's annoying. But not more so than anything else in mass produced culture.

A true artist can always express their vision in a variety of media; from da Vinci to Henry Miller to David Bowie...the list goes on. Colette was an actress as well as a genius writer, and she had her own beauty line. I think it's fabulous that she had the guts and vision to do that. Just because we don't see this happening at anything close to quality level in the fashion market right now, we must never rule out, or discourage, the possibility.
It just comes across as sour b-tching and clouds our own vision.

 

[Lena]

it's just a marketing trick, nothing to do with celebrities or with design

a two way rip off for the benefit of the shareholders, that's how i see this

 

[loonaka]

I think many ppl are agains Kate's collection for topshop becasue she didn't do anything except for bringing some of her own clothes to the topshop office, but i mean she never said she was going to design anything, also since she is sort of an icon ppl had really high expertations to the collection, and when it turned out to way it did it was a disapointment to many.

But i'm kinda sick of the whole trend with celebs trying to do everything just to get more fame and money. Like actors as models, models as designers, designers as reality show participants and so on...

 

[Beautiful Stranger]

Very interesting article, thanks for posting..

I actually like some of the Kate Moss for topshop-items, especially the mesh scarf, the skinny red jeans, and the dress(not sure if it's one of the two mentioned in the article, i just saw a quick picture onlnie). I guess the real question we should ask ourself is "Would we buy it if it weren't Kate Moss for topshop?"..

 

[modelbehavior228]

I think it screams TRAGIC WANNABE!

 

[saann]

I agree with Melisande's post

In Psychology I learned about the rosenthal(?) experiment which means that if you have certain expectations about something then there is a big chance that the result you will get will be expected.. Most people have low expectations on celeb-collaborations so the results will meet those expectations.

lots of people on this forum already have opinion ready about celebrity collaborations so when the collections come out they're all ready to leash out on it.. If the collection had been presented by a respected Designer the opinions might have changed

But I can honestly say that the reactions to the Kate Moss collection is quite different and more 'honest' than the reactions to other celeb-collaboations. People actually expected this to be good and it really didn't meet those high expectations..

anyways thanx for the article Lena

 

[softgrey]

If part of Moss's appeal has always been her originality, then wearing a dress that literally thousands of others have also bought, even if it does have Moss's imprimatur, does seem to bypass a certain degree of logic.

this sums it all up for me...
...

it's pretty silly imo...

 

[ilaughead]

I think that our "love" of celebrity designers is the one thing everyone at TFS can agree on.

The article only mentions a few lines, does that mean that their are less of them in the UK than they are in the US?

 

[papa_levante]

I think MKA aren't half bad. A guest on It's On With Alexa Chung was wearing something from The Row, and it looked heavenly! Aside from MKA, no one else has stood out so much.

I think SJP did some designing for Steve and Barry's, but I think that company is dead.

 

[VersaceLuva586]

I think the whole "celebrity designer" trend has become a joke.

It annoys me that most of these so called "celebs" like Heidi Montag and Paris Hilton are designing collections that won't last beyond two seasons while there are actually talented designers out there, struggling to get noticed in the industry

I am not saying that anyone who is a celebrity shouldn't design because in fact, there are some celebrity brands that are great like Mary-Kate & Ashley's successful brands The Row and Elizabeth & James (i'm a huge MK & A fan) and Victoria Beckham's collections. These three are probably the only celeb designers that have serious potential to become even more successful than they already are because of the quality and wearability of the designs.

But it makes me to think of girls from that ridiculous show 'The Hills' who are famous for 15 minutes and then get to "design" a collection? Very embarrasing for the fashion industry but after all, for some people it's all about the money