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The name game: Can anyone famous be a designer?
Suzy Menkes IHT
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
NEW YORK It is celebrity warfare. On Sunday Jennifer Lopez, in a nude chiffon dress decked out with diamonds, joined the centenary celebrations of Coty - the venerable beauty house that has had a huge hit with the J-Lo Glow fragrance.
On Tuesday, Britney Spears fights back - taking over the giant billboard in Times Square to promote her first fragrance that is being launched under the auspices of Elizabeth Arden this week.
There is a neat symbolism in the idea that a pop diva should fill what has long been an iconic fashion spot, promoting Calvin Klein's jeans, his well-filled male underwear and any labels that want to make it in Manhattan.
Celebrities, having appeared in fashion's front rows and competed in the rarefied world of designer fragrances, are now moving onto the runways.
The proliferation of celebrity labels is the big story of 2004 with an explosion of "A" list names attached to fashion lines. It seems that anyone in America can produce a collection - as long as they are already famous.
When Paris Hilton, Beyoncé Knowles, Lil' Kim or even Ivana Trump and her sold-on-television jewelry are in the audience, are they really there to promote their own brands - and maybe to pick up a few fashion tips from the pros?
J-Lo herself has a sports line through her Sweetface company. (Can Britney be far behind?) And there are upcoming licenses for JLO watches and a footwear collection for spring 2005.
Leader of the celebrity pack is Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, who has parlayed his own personal swagger into a menswear business that is a genuine success.
"We do great business with the Sean John line; it is one of our top sellers, along with Ralph Lauren," said Kalman Ruttenstein, the designer director of Bloomingdale's. The store, however, turned down the J-Lo line.
The famous name labels are appearing thick and fast. The most noise is coming from Paris Hilton, the hotel heiress famous for being famous on reality television. Click on to the retail site Amazon.com and you find a Paris Hilton boutique sparkling with the jewelry no cool blonde can live without: belly chains and navel decoration, ankle or charm bracelets. Not to be outdone, her sister Nicky designs handbags.
Gwen Stefani, the stylish rock star with the group No Doubt, is already a handbag queen. She teamed up with American company Le Sportsac to create a bag collection called L.A.M.B. , reflecting her favorite things: "love," "angel," "music" and "baby."
Julie Gilhart from Barneys said that "Gwen Stefani has had a good stab at it" and that the store is also looking seriously at a new line from Milla Jovovich, the model turned actress who has recently been the muse and face of Giorgio Armani.
"But we do none of the others - not Lil' Kim or J-Lo," she says. "You can have a lot of vibe, but it has got to be a good product. The customer is too savvy at our store."
It certainly helps to launch a line if you are gorgeous as well as famous. When Beyoncé Knowles appeared at the Council of American Fashion Designers' award ceremony in a citric orange gown, she was quick to claim it as her own design. Knowles and her mother Tina, who is the creative force behind the label, signed a deal to create their own collection.
"My mother and I share a love of fashion and style and with this brand we're going to share our visions of what is truly beautiful," said Knowles. "Our line will consist of fashions that I enjoy wearing and I want them to be appealing to my fans as well."
The loud-mouthed British tabloids had no doubt why Kylie Minogue's fans would buy the Australian star's "Love Kylie" lingerie. Above a picture of the star wearing her tiny lacy bikinis was the screaming headline: "Get into Kylie's knickers!"
Another Australian lingerie line comes from the former model Elle Macpherson. Other supermodels who became internationally famous have been able to parlay their celebrity into brands. The most convincing line is the yoga-inspired Nuala collection from Christy Turlington, in collaboration with Puma. Turlington saw a market gap and filled it with clothes she wanted for herself.
Personal experience can sometimes replace long-term fashion experience. Christina Aguilera, a frequent Versace wearer, said in Milan in July when she made an appearance for DSquared, that she would like to design lingerie style tops. Liv Tyler, expecting a baby for next year, claims that the limited choice has inspired her to create a maternity line for the "modern urban girl." Luckily she has her pal Stella McCartney, who is a rock royalty celebrity as well as a designer trained at London's Saint Martin's school.
McCartney herself has just brought her celebrity status to the German-based sports giant Adidas for a range of active wear unveiled last week.
Tie-ups between celebrities and sportswear are based on the concept of borrowed fame and cool. In April 2004, Adidas signed Missy Elliott, the top-selling hip-hop star who has created her own brand of street wear called "Respect M.E."
"Urban" in America is usually applied to black music artists. They have been taken up in force by the fashion world, with Eve's "Fetish" label of sports clothes and active wear launched in Macy's last fall, while the raunchy Lil' Kim is producing a watch named "Queen B royalty."
Sports companies are interested as much - or perhaps even more - in men than women. Eminem now has a sportswear collection, while a genuine sports star such as the soccer player David Beckham goes in for product endorsement, such as his Police sunglasses and other lucrative deals. Tennis star Serena Williams worked with Reebok and Diane Von Furstenberg; and Reebok forged deals with hip-hop's 50 Cent and also with Jay-Z.
And what about those fragrance and beauty deals? Britney's "Curious" with its rounded bottle and newly fashionable atomizer, is joining a big list of hits and failures. The cosmetic giant Revlon has used Halle Berry, Julianne Moore and Susan Sarandon. Lancaster signed J-Lo for a makeup line. At the Coty party, Lopez explained why she thought that Glow (soon to be followed by a new fragrance Miami Glow) was such a hit.
"I was very involved in it - a lot of me was in it," she said. "It has to be part of yourself, but something to which women can relate."
Bernd Beetz, president of Coty, agrees with that judgment.
"To put a personality on a bottle is not enough - there has to be an elegant cooperation," he says. "We work on each element with the star."
Clothing is an even more delicate balance, because there has to be a trained designer to interpret the celebrity's vision. And for all the product tie-ups and newly launched labels, New York's most revered retailers remain skeptical about celebrity brands.
"You can clap a name on anything, but we don't buy any of them," says Joan Kaner of Neiman Marcus. While Barneys' Gilhart says: "Our store customers are the celebrities."
Robert Burke, fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, has steered clear of logos and celebrities.
"Our customer is very discerning and if a product is not good they will not accept it, whether it is made by a rapper or whoever," he says. "I think it is rather embarrassing of the fashion industry to embrace celebrity so much."
Copyright © 2004 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
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