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| Fashion Through the Lens of Celebrities by: Mai Eldib From Barneys New York to Kmart, a new craze is emerging from Hollywood; celebrities are beginning to coin their own empires by exporting their various talents to include the fashion industry. From Jennifer Lopez to the Olsen Twins, celebrities are no longer simply actors or singers but their resume includes a cadre of other job titles, from fashion designer to perfume makers with whole list of perfumes customized to their personalized scent. Even though the celebrity fashion trend has been labeled a Public Relations stint by several newspapers and fashion critics, some celebrity fashion labels bear lots of successes in this very risky business. It all began around two decades ago following the Charlie’s Angels obsession, when one of the former Angels, Jaclyn Smith, joined Kmart and began an affordable clothing line that wowed America. And the rest is history. |
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| As Sex and the City actress and fashion icon Sarah Jessica Parker has said: “Fashion is not a luxury, it's a right.” Her fashion line, Bitten, is currently available at Steve and Barry’s stores nationwide and offers merchandise that is accessible to everyone. I know that I could only dream of owning a quarter of her Sex and the City wardrobe, from its array of vintage Chanel to her endless closet of Manolos. Her new collection – BITTEN - is for women of all sizes and all different ages with sizes ranging from XS to XXL. SJP sought to have a line that contains quality but at a reasonable price, every piece of her designs costs $19.98 or less. Recently, SJP took part of the fashionable reality TV show, Project Runway by allowing the young |
| designers to compete for one of their designs to be featured as part of her clothing line. With the theme of fashion for the masses and who can resist when Swedish giant retailer H&M has been constantly teaming up with Haute Couture designers and Pop Culture icons to create clothes with pizzazz for everyone. There appears to be a re-occurring inclination to offer everyone a taste of high fashion but at a price that won’t eventually cause a heart attack. Just last month, on November 9th, H&M debuted a collection by fabulous Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, who designed the outfits for the current Spice Girls Tour, Christina Aguilera Tour and the Jennifer Lopez Tour. The collection sold out in less than an hour. Cavalli, whose designs are featured on the covers of Vogue or Baazar purveyed his famous leopard prints so everyone can be able to own a piece of fashion history. With their reunion tour currently taking North America by storm, it isn’t shocking the one of the Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham, also known as Posh Spice, has opted to embody her current persona of fashionista and fashion designer. Victoria Beckham has now become a household name in America with her love for fashion and her equally talented husband LA Galaxy soccer star, David Beckham. She began her career as fashion designer by teaming up with urban chic denim brand Rock & Republic and produced a line of jeans that had a royal crown and her initials of VBD on the pockets. Her collection is a little pricey in comparison to her fashion celebrity icons with jeans costing on average $290. She currently parted ways with Rock & Republic and began her VBD fashion line (which stands for Victoria and David Beckham) which includes VBD jeans, as well feminine and masculine perfumes that are personalized to David and Victoria’s personal scents. |
| Another fashion icon who didn’t just stop at only creating one fashion line, but two is the fabulous diva, Jennifer Lopez. Lopez has two lines, Sweetface and JLO, the first more glamorous than her JLO line. The JLO line didn’t fair that well, despite the fact that it catered to women of all different sizes and included clothing, accessories and lingerie. In 2007 the JLO fashion line died in favor of JustSweet, a clothing line that is designed for juniors in mind. La Lopez didn’t only manage to design clothes for everyone, but her more glamorous and higher end line, Sweetface was launched during the New York Fashion Week and has become part of her ever growing fashion empire. She also has 4 perfumes in the market, with 2 more to be released in the near future. |
| Not be left in the shadows of their older counterparts, Young Hollywood has also joined the Celebrity Fashion Designing movement. Former child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen also did double duty and double trouble with their current two separate fashion lines. With a line of clothing and accessories available at affordable prices at Wal-Mart, called “Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen: Real Fashion for Real Girls,” the Olsen twins won accolades when they voiced their concerns that the women who sewed merchandise for their line of clothing in Bangladesh being unable to gain maternity leave. Not stopping just yet, the Olsen twins, who have revived this boho-chic form of clothing, created another company called “The Row”, with a fashion line called “Elizabeth & James” in reference to their siblings. “Elizabeth & James” includes pieces inspired from their boho-chic look and can be bought at luxury department stores such as Barneys New York. Time and again celebrity fashion has been a dynamic form of success for Celebrity Business Empires. With an attempt to maintain a connection to their fans, this new celebrity fashion development affords everyone to dress like fashion icons at affordable and sometimes steep prices. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if one of the High School Musical stars decides to start her own label!!! |
"Fashion is not a luxury, it's a right." ~ Sarah Jessica Parker |