Celebrity labels

In November 2011 she won the British Designer of the Year award.

There now exists a compelling list of accomplished celebrity designers with new entrants every other day.

Rihanna and Mary J Blige are working on theirs, good news for women of colour in an industry where black success is not so frequent an occurrence.

Not all celebrity lines work for the good. Jennifer Lopez partnered with Tommy Hilfiger through Sweetface. It tanked.

Turns out she was not creatively involved in the process. She and her then husband revisited Hilfiger and currently work in collaboration with Kohls for a his and hers line.

The main fear with celebrity clothing lines is that primarily, celebrities do it because they have over-inflated egos continuously stroked by Yes-Men who repeatedly tell them how great, brilliant and infallible they are until the market disproves this theory.

Aside from that is the feeling that their true creativity is expressed in their first career and fashion is merely an interest, hobby or curiosity fuelled by said Yes-Men and clever stylists.

In comes hesitant fashion insiders reluctant to be associated with a celebrity fashion line in anticipation of inevitable failure.

Celebrity labels last not by sheer force of personality or brand but on wearability. Labels that have stood the test of time have commercial value.

They are essentially creative but are pared down, accessible but not so much and suitably expensive so as to not dilute the brand (both personal and commercial).

They are not precisely an extension of the celebrity but exist outside of them. Cut, fit, precision, finishing and sophistication need to stand out.