Celebrity Designers Round 4: Models, Actors, and Reality Stars

Every person who has ever had their name in lights (or in the tabloids) for some reason feels the need to release a clothing line. Some actually have a decent idea that has potential (see Alyssa Milano). Others have an arrogant need to impose themselves on us...whether we want them to or not (see Heidi Montag). There are too many to go into detail about, but I'll give you a glimpse of as many as possible. 

Celebrity: Nicole Richie

Line: House of Harlow 1960 (jewelry)/ Winter Kate (clothing)

Established: 2007/2009

Rating: 8

It seems the wild girl found her calling! She's really got something here. I love her hippie-chic style. Her maternity line for Pea in a Pod was even cute. If it had been out when I was pregnant, I may have even purchased some pieces. 

Celebrity: Lauren Conrad

Line: LC by Lauren Conrad for Kohl's

Established: 2009

Rating: 2

I'll give her an 'A' for effort, but just because she had a desire to be in the fashion industry (as seen in her multiple reality shows), doesn't mean she should be given her own line! She didn't earn it, so I don't respect it. Besides, it's nothing new. It looks like everything else sold in Kohl's junior department. BORING! 

Celebrity: Heidi Montag

Line: Heidiwood

Established: 2008

Rating: -12 (yes, that says negative 12)

Do I even have to say anything about this? 

Celebrity: Sarah Jessica Parker

Line: Bitten

Established: 2007

Rating: 7

This would score much higher, but since Steve & Barry's went under, it's nearly impossible to find. I don't believe it has been picked up yet by any other retailer, so it's currently in limbo. I do love the line...and the fact that every piece is under $20. Brilliant!

Celebrity: Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen

Line: Elizabeth & James for The Row and that unfortunate line for Wal-Mart

Established: 2008 (estimate)

Rating: 4

The Elizabeth & James line for their own couture label, The Row, was a decent attempt to distance themselves from the Wal-Mart pre-teen line, but it wasn't enough. The clothes aren't terrible though, I'd probably even wear a few pieces...under a different label!

Celebrity: Gisele Bundchen

Line: Ipanema (sandals)

Established: 2007

Rating: 5

Bonus points for donating proceeds to Brazil's rainforests...or something like that. The sandals are okay, but I'm a loyal Reef girl when it comes to flip-flops. 

Celebrity: Kimora Lee Simmons

Line: Baby Phat

Established: 1998

Rating: 3

I personally HATE this brand. I hate all the logos and the gaudiness. The runway stuff even has too much gold! However, it is beloved by so many. I really don't understand what they see in it. Can somebody please explain? Besides, it is so annoying how she always pimps herself and her kids in the ads! Her modeling career has been over for a long time, but she can't seem to pass the torch! 

Celebrity: Alyssa Milano

Line: Touch

Established: 2007

Rating: 7

Knowing that athletic team wear for women was seriously lacking, Alyssa Milano introduced Touch. This is a genius idea! As a HUGE Yankee fan, I appreciate that she's doing something especially for the ladies! Some of it is cheesy (jeans with team logos on the butt), but for the most part, she's doing an awesome job with this line!

***Just a side note - Alyssa Milano was my favorite actress growing up! So much so, that I wanted to change my name to Sam (her character on Who's The Boss)! Since my parents wouldn't let me, I named my cat Sam instead. Yup, I realize how lame I sound right now, but I so don't care!***

P.S. I want both items shown in the above photos. I do accept gifts! 

This concludes the celebrity designer series. I know there are many celebs with clothing lines that I did not mention, but there are just so many of them, I can't keep track of them all. Make sure you vote in all 4 polls in the sidebar. The winner of each round will go up against each other to determine your favorite celebrity designer. 

Hope you enjoyed! Up next - Prom Season! 

Back to Black

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Make sure to vote in the polls in the sidebar. Round 4 of Celebrity Designers will be posted soon and we will then pit the winners of each round against each other for the overall favorite! 

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Celebrity Designers Round 3: Athletes

Music and fashion go well together. Sports and fashion, not so much...unless they are designing athletic wear.

Celebrity: Serena Williams - Tennis
Line: Aneres
Established: 2004
Rating: 2

It's rather ironic that Serena is the one with the fashion line, since Venus graduated from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale with a degree in Fashion Design. Even though Serena also attended the Art Institute (did not graduate), after looking at the line, it becomes obvious that she is lacking a formal fashion education. This line is a mess. The quality is sub-par, the designs are not even a little bit creative, and the styles are out dated. Needless to say, I'm less than impressed. I highly doubt this line would have ever made it off the ground if she hadn't already made a name for herself in tennis with her crazy sense of style. Even the website is super cheesy!

Celebrity: Lance Armstrong - Cyclist

Line: 10 2 (for Nike)

Established: 2007

Rating: 7

10 2 is a line for Nike that includes high-tech jerseys, shorts, shoes, and other athletic wear. This actually makes perfect sense. Who better to design riding gear than the arguably best rider in the world? I wouldn't buy any of it, but I'm also not the target customer. If I were a competition bike rider, I would probably be interested in this line, but the yellow and black on everything is slight overkill. We get it, Lance - Livestrong! Not everything you make needs to be yellow and black. That would be like me wearing red every day just because that's the color of my blog. Won't happen!

Celebrity: Tony Hawk - Skateboarder

Line: Hawk (for Kohl's)

Established: 2007

Rating: 8

As much as I don't like real fashion designers selling out by designing for places like Kohl's or Target, I don't mind athletes dong it. They never had the high-end line that is being downgraded, they are simply providing something wearable to their fans. The clothes in the Hawk line aren't too bad at all. Totally worthy of a skater and reasonably priced. Even my extremely picky brother, who only wears flannels and Dickies, wears the Hawk line. The only downfall is that it is only for boys and young men. Girls skate too! 

Celebrity: Shaun White - Snowboarder/Skateboarder

Line: Shawn White for Target

Established: 2008

Rating: 8

I rate this pretty much the same as Tony Hawk for Kohl's. Besides the fact that they are good friends, they both have great business sense. These clothes would be over priced and out of context if they were sold in, let's say, Nordstrom. Target and Kohl's really work for their target market. The Shaun White line is cute, casual, and comfortable for the kids. But again, it's only for boys. There are tons of girls into extreme sports, where are their clothes? 

Celebrity: Michael Jordon

Line: Jordon (for Nike)

Established: 2004

Rating: 10

Honestly, what can I even say about Jordon? He's a legend...both on the court and in the boardroom. Just as dunking seems to come naturally to him, the man seamlessly runs his business and created a brand recognizable world wide. He turned his personal identity into one of the best selling brands in history. That's brilliant! One image is all he needed, and it's worked for decades! I don't wear them, but how can you fault a guy that singlehandedly made Nike the billion dollar business it is. 

Come back soon for the final round, Round 4: Actors, Models, and Reality Stars!

Celebrity Designers Round 2: Pop Stars

Music and fashion have pretty much always gone hand-in-hand. I guess that's why so many musicians decide to make the jump to designer. Much like the rappers, some do it well, others, not so much!

Celebrity: Jennifer Lopez
Line: JLO, Sweetface, and Just Sweet
Established: 2003
Rating: 3

You would think by pairing up with Andy Hilfiger (brother of Tommy), Jennifer Lopez would have created a better brand. However, riding the coattails of then boyfriend, P. Diddy (or Puffy as he was being called back then) didn't pan out so well. The clothes were tacky and cheap looking with little style and no unique place in the market. Both lines have stalled production and although there are mixed reports, it seems that Just Sweet and Sweetface are no longer, while JLO is reportedly just on hiatus. Either way, it seems her clothing venture was about as successful as Gigli...c'mon you remember that overpriced, under appreciated, terrible mess of a movie from Bennifer. J. Lo should stick to what she does best (although I have no idea what that is), and leave fashion to the pros!
***I gave her extra points for attempting to create a brand for the big-booty girls. The effort was decent, the brand was not.***

Celebrity: Justin Timberlake w/ Trace Ayala

Line: William Rast - high-end denim

Established: 2006 

Rating: 9

Justin has the highest rating thus far! I do not personally own a pair of William Rast jeans, but I have friends that absolutely LOVE them. They are stylish without being overly pretentious (and overly gaudy or covered in logos). Justin teamed up with his friend Trace Ayala to develop the brand. Instead of using the celebrity's name as the brand name, they instead used monikers of each of their grandfathers' - nice touch! I really like that it started high-end denim and has stayed true to that since its launch. As far as I'm concerned, William Rast knocked Rock & Republic off their edgy pedestals and outed them as the sell-outs they are. Now that we've determined that Justin knows jeans, I just wish he'd start wearing them instead of those dumb tuxes with ruffled shirts. 

Celebrity: Avril Lavigne

Line: Abbey Dawn for Kohl's 

Established: 2007 or 2008 (Estimate)

Rating: 1

I've already expressed my opinion on this tragic brand in a previous post, so I won't go into it again. However, I will state that I really, really, really, can't stand this brand! Not even the wanna-be goth/punk kids that follow Avril around should be caught dead in this crap! It's just really ugly!

Celebrity: Miley Cyrus

Line: Miley Cyrus with Max Azria for Wal-Mart 

Established: 2009

Rating: 0

Going from bad to worse. Yes, I said this was a scale of 1-10, but given the circumstances, I couldn't even bring myself to rate this on the scale. The second I heard this was happening, I immediately boycotted everything Max Azria has a hand in - not that I really wore any of it anyway, but now I absolutely won't buy it on principle alone! I can't stand Miley with that ridiculous white-trash twang and especially can't stand Wal-mart with their destructive and exploitive practices around the world. The combination of the two is just that much more depressing. First of all, any clothing sold in Wal-Mart is inevitably mass produced by under-paid, over-worked laborers in Asia. Second, Miley is a walking, talking, representative of all things wrong with the current state of pop culture. She's tacky, she's a terrible role model, and has zero talent in any field I've seen her in (acting, singing, modeling). Now, onto the actual subject matter here, the clothes. They are terrible! That's all...just an absolute blazin' wreck! It's so bad, that apparently Miley is the only one who is willing to wear it, since she's in every picture I could find of the clothing.  

Celebrity: Jessica Simpson

Line: Jessica Simpson Collection

Established: Unknown

Rating: 8

Those of you who know me are probably surprised at the high rating I've given Ms. Simpson. However, I have actually come around to liking the shoes. When they first came out, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that this seemingly moronic girl was able to successfully put out a line of anything, much less cute shoes. The first couple years they were pretty unattractive. As time went on, and the more high-end stores that picked up the brand, the better the line became. There are several pairs out right now that I would totally buy! Even though I'm not a fan of Jessica Simpson the celebrity, I kinda like what she's done with her brand. There are now accessories, outerwear, lingerie, swimwear, and luggage in the collection. All are surprisingly decent. (I really want the shoes below left.)

Celebrity: Beyonce

Line: House of Dereon 

Established: 2004

Rating: 2

Beyonce is a talented girl who seems to have a good head on her shoulders, but this brand is a big FAIL as far as I'm concerned. The brand is always involved in some kind of controversy, whether it be for use of real fur or oversexualizing little girls in ads for the kids line (see below). This line didn't have much of a chance in my mind. I absolutely despised everything Tina Knowles (Beyonce's mother and partner in this venture), designed for the girls in Destiny's Child. She designed their tour wardrobe as well as their matchy-matchy red carpet outfits. Nothing was ever cute and always reminded me of the crap I had to wear in dance recitals as a kid. The actual clothing line is no better. It's really gaudy and horribly tasteless. I'm not sure why a girl who only seems to own leotards would start a clothing line anyway...

Celebrity: Gwen Stefani

Line: L.A.M.B. and Harajuku Lovers 

Established: 2004 (L.A.M.B.) and 2005 (Harajuku Lovers)

Rating: 10 (L.A.M.B.) and 8 (Harajuku Lovers)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Gwen Stefani! In my book, she can do no wrong! She knows fashion, and she does it very well. Her L.A.M.B. line is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, which is why it earned the highest possible rating! High quality, super cute, not-too-trendy clothing for young women! Even though I can't afford most of it, I still love it! Harajuku Lovers is a lower budget lifestyle brand that totally works for the customer it is designed for. The only reason this line doesn't get a 10 also, is that the patterns can be a little goofy and ultra busy at times. Gwen Stefani really knows who her customer is and how to dress them. She could have easily been a successful designer without the celebrity name to sell the brand (that's really unusual in the world of celeb designers). Not that you couldn't figure it out for yourselves, but L.A.M.B is on the left and Harajuku Lovers is on the right. 

***Just a totally irrelevant side note, the only boy my daughter is allowed to date before she's 40 is Gwen's son Kingston. He's so stinking cute and they're only 3 months apart in age!***

Celebrity: Travis Barker

Line: Famous Stars and Straps 

Established: 1999

Rating: 6

From one celebrity who I love (Gwen Stefani) to another (Travis Barker)! I was a huge fan of Famous Stars and Straps (more often just called Famous) when it first came out. It's mostly tee shirts and hoodies, but it worked because that's what Travis Barker wears and that's what his fans wear. However, I lost interest when they started selling it at Hot Topic and Pacific Sunwear. There are WAY too many logos for me. I just can't deal with looking like a scene kid every day or shopping where they shop. The difference here though, and the reason the rating is higher than others, is that Travis Barker isn't trying to be high-end or even sell to the masses. He's just putting out a line that represents his own style. Even though I don't like the brand in particular, it does still sell well to the core audience of Blink 182, so therefore it is a success as far as celebrity clothing lines go.

***One more thing - WHY, oh WHY do these celebs feel the need to model their own lines? Almost all of them do it, and it's SOOOO annoying! You never saw Coco Chanel or Giorgio Armani modeling their latest Cruise collection. How can I take a brand seriously when the designer is also the model? It's just weird!***

Stay tuned for the next round of Celebrity Designers. Next up: Athletes.