Celebs as Designers: Yay or Nay?

Posted by Lesley Scott Jun 9, 2007

Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker for the American discount chain Steve & Barry’s, Sweetface by Jennifer Lopez, handbags & shoes by Jessica Simpson, Madonna for H&M, Chick by Nicky Hilton, Kate Moss for Top Shop, Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen at Walmart. “These celebrity clothing lines are being done for publicity. It’s all about how much hype can be got from the launch,” George Davis – the man behind George at Asda, Per Una (Marks & Spencer), and Next – recently noted in a speech at De Montfort University in Leicester, mirroring the opinion of many in the fashion business (including those who enjoy blogging about it) that celebs playing designer shortchanges the fashion-buying public. “If you look at the past instances of celebrity designs, they don’t create anything that survives the test of time.”

But is the celeb-as-designer trend really as harmful as many fashion insiders seem to feel?

While the actual design value of much what these celebs are promoting is – without question – questionable, the intense focus on the products themselves misses the broader context: making the market for fashion more democratic & accessible. Instead of it being too expensive or too intimidating for the unwashed masses, and limited only to an elite group of well-heeled fashionistas, using celebrities to attract the attention and purchasing power of the public at large actually opens up the market to a wider array of opinions, consumers, and pricepoints. People who would be priced out of the end of the market created by legitimate designers – marked by $1200 handbags and $5000 ensembles – can afford to play when they are encouraged to participate and nothing is priced over $20 (Bitten).

The result is that the fashion industry can grow and become more lucrative. As more consumers pay attention to fashion and start spending, the more robust the fashion industry as a whole becomes. Myriad players benefit from the designers themselves – there are now a lot more jobs available so they can pay their bills as designers rather than waiting tables – all the way up (down?) to the fashion editors and writers; because there are now so many more readers with different interests, there is not only a much broader readership to serve, which means additional revenue from advertising, but there are more opportunities for niche publications and new, unique, and individual editorial voices.