By Tom Ryan
With Paris in jail and Lindsey in rehab, we've probably all heard (or done) enough celebrity bashing recently to last a lifetime. But now it's coming from an unlikely corner: young fashion designers.
According to a recent article in the New York Times, the success of many celebrity fashion lines may be impeding the development of young designers - taking up shelf space that should reserved for their talent. The new celebrity competition only adds to challenges long facing new designers, including the contraction of department stores, difficulties getting financing, and the fickleness of consumers.
Times fashion writer Eric Wilson called the circumstance "a great paradox" for the fashion world.
"For decades fashion has courted celebrities," he writes. "It encouraged pop stars who moonlighted as designers, like Sean Combs, Jennifer Lopez and Gwen Stefani, to stage runway shows for flashy jeans and confectionary hot-pants ensembles. Mr. Combs, partly for his oversize personality and courtship of key players like Anna Wintour and Tom Ford, was nominated for awards for years and won for best men's wear in 2004."
"It seemed harmless fun," adds Mr. Wilson. "But now a number of designers are not so sure."
The most obvious area where celebrities are affecting designers is in fragrance sales. In today's environment, celebrities can quickly gain a fragrance deal whereas it takes years for traditional designers to build a strong enough name to attract a company such as Estee Lauder. With the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Lopez and Paris Hilton jumping into the high-end department-store tier of the fragrance business, celebrities have grabbed 10 percent of that $2.8 billion market, as of 2005, whereas a decade ago their presence barely registered.
But celebrity success is also limiting new designers' success in apparel. Historically, designers such as Calvin, Donna and Marc Jacobs would make more than enough money on sizeable denim and sportswear businesses to offset any losses in smaller, more experimental haute couture collections. Now, Sean Combs and Jennifer Lopez and others have found success with jeans and sportswear at department stores.
Many are targeted toward the middle market, such as Sarah Jessica Parker's new line at Steve & Barry's debuting last week and Madonna's line at H&M. But many are finding success in the contemporary or bridge area competing much closer to the designer's turf. These include two lines from the Olsen twins (Growing Pains, Full House) selling at Barneys and Neiman Marcus.
"Celebrities have made it harder for real designers," said veteran designer Vera Wang. "It's a big open field out there now, like the Wild, Wild West. You could be competing against a television or movie star for a fragrance deal, and that's an added pressure for designers. We're working really hard to keep our heads above water, and does the public differentiate, or care? Those are big questions. The most obvious impact is in fragrance, but certainly in apparel we're feeling it now as well."
Mr. Wilson openly wonders what this means for the fashion industry if even high fashion is increasingly driven by celebrities rather than craftsmanship?
"Doesn't that skill and artisanship matter to consumers, compared with the brute marketing muscle behind a line like, say, Kate Moss's recent collection for Topshop, which was copied from pieces by other designers that were in the model's closet?," asks Mr. Wilson.
But Diane Von Furstenberg, the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, argued that most celebrity collections, unlike those of its high-end members, are intended for a mass market.
"I can see that the young designers fear they can get overpowered," she said, "but they shouldn't, because talent wins out."
Discussion Questions: Is the fashion industry relying too much on fame to drive sales rather than developing design talent? Should the industry be giving more support to designers who drive fashion trends? If so, how?