If you haven’t read today’s Guardian interview with Stella McCartney, you’re missing out.
Anyone who even thinks they might want to work in fashion really, really needs to read the article. Especially those who think they might want to hang on to their sense of ethics.
I make no secret of my exasperation with certain celebrities who have no talent, no taste, and zero design skills, yet are inexplicably taken seriously as fashion designers when they decide being rich and famous isn’t enough. I’ve gone over the subject enough times that I really, really don’t feel like rehashing it all again (when I read about the unholy Lohan-Ungaro alliance in the New York Times recently, I struggled to keep from vomiting) so read the archives if you don’t already understand.
The Guardian reports that Harry Potter star Emma Watson is now launching her own line. Am I mad? Not at all. Actually (even though I’m not about to forget she’s the face of fur-heavy label Burberry), I’d like to shake her hand.
Unlike some celebs I can think of, Emma isn’t doing the line for purely selfish reasons:
“I was excited by the idea of using fashion as a tool to alleviate poverty and knew it was something I could help make a difference with,” she said.
“I think young people like me are becoming increasingly aware of the humanitarian and environmental issues surrounding fast fashion and want to make good choices but there aren’t many options out there.”
A celebrity using her influence and popularity to encourage ethical dressing? I, for one, can get behind that.
Emma’s collection for People Tree (which is fair-trade, largely organic, and creates fair-wage jobs in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India) is expected to be released next February. (Heads-up to my fellow strict vegans: when buying from People Tree, watch out for wool, silk, and seashells. Fortunately, much of the line is organic cotton. And the Jessica dress is too cute.)
Yesterday, Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman answered a reader’s query about why so many celebrities, who have never sewn a stitch in their entire lives, launch fashion labels.
It’s a reasonably good answer that anyone can understand, but I think Freeman is a little too charitable to the sort of celebs who think they can cut it in the fashion world. One glaring omission: GREED. It’s statistically improbable that ALL celebrities with their own labels are money-hungry, but let’s face it, some of them are definitely just looking to cash in. If their names weren’t marketable, nobody would pay any attention to their wares at all.
I’ve commented before on why celebs really shouldn’t attempt to design clothes, and I stand by that. Design requires real skills that take years to learn, and it isn’t as if actors and rock stars really need an extra paycheck.
Freeman correctly pointed out that some designers have helped create the problem by leaning too heavily upon getting their clothes onto the “right” people. Building on that, Barneys creative director Simon Doonan has famously advised would-be designers not to give famous people free clothes because they will only respect the labels for which they must actually pay – and given how wealthy they are, they can certainly afford to do so. The late Christian Dior is not “gently weeping” as Freeman suggested – he’s rolling over in his grave. (I suspect Freeman is unaware that, back in the day, Dior refused to create a wedding gown for Brigitte Bardot in La Marieé est Trop Belle.)
Someday, when I have my own line (and I will), I fully intend to follow Simon’s advice. Should any celebrities throw tantrums in any of my stores, they will swiftly discover that my staff have all been authorized to call the police in such a situation.
I want to cry.
Just when I think the world can’t go any more mad than it already has, another celebrity decides they want to be a designer, too.
I was about to graduate from design school when Gwen Stefani launched her first collection of LAMB handbags. I couldn’t understand why some of the freshmen in the program leaped at the chance to buy one. Design students work their arses off just to get into most fashion programs, then spend the next few years working even harder just to stay on top of all their coursework and training. Why, then, turn around and reward a celebrity who only has her own line because she is a famous fashion plate, and never had to suffer through the same hell we did? Never mind that few superstars actually need yet another paycheck.
Handbags aren’t exactly rocket science; I have to admit that even a 10-year-old with a good sense of spatial reasoning and a passable knowledge of sewing is capable of creating a decent bag. But designing clothes is MUCH more complicated. Case in point: Pamela Anderson set out to create a vegan clothing line, and somehow wound up using a silk-blend material for her pricey sweatpants. Given that it’s actually much easier to source 100% cotton fabrics than a silk blend, you’d think she’d have done that, but she clearly had no idea what the hell she was doing. It doesn’t help the progress of vegan fashion when things like that happen.
Designing shoes is EVEN MORE complicated than clothes or bags. Creating a shoe line from scratch is at least as complicated as building a house from the ground up. Even I don’t plan to have my own shoe label because it’s more than I can handle right now, and I’m the Vegan Shoe Lady!
Shoes (good ones, anyway) aren’t just apparel, they are feats of engineering. Materials must be chosen carefully so they will have enough support and just the right amount of give (and, hopefully, be breathable and waterproof). A good shoe is designed to cradle the foot and provide adequate support, which is especially important with heels. Salvatore Ferragamo attended anatomy classes at USC long after he’d established himself as a shoemaker so he could continually improve the fit, comfort level, and supports in his shoes. Does that sound like something Jessica Simpson would do? Hardly; she certainly doesn’t have the brains to get into USC in the first place. (I’m not even certain she knows what “USC” stands for.)
I cringed when Natalie Portman collaborated on a line with Té Casan. Ms. Portman, while remarkably intelligent, does not have the necessary training to design shoes. Shoe design requires more than brains – properly trained shoemakers spend YEARS acquiring their technical skills. Every time a celebrity decides to put out their own label, even if they are fulfilling more of a “creative director” role and outsourcing the actual design to someone else, they bolster the idea that anyone with an idea and startup capital can become a designer without having to study first. It’s just not that easy. The less you know about the trade, the more likely it is that you will make some mistake which will ultimately bankrupt you. That holds true in all industries, not just apparel.
To make matters worse, Ms. Portman’s shoes STARTED at $200 per pair, and went up to $450 for boots. This is a far lower price than almost anything with Stella McCartney’s name on it, but is still well out of reach for the average vegan. One of the most important things they teach you in design school is that if you can’t produce something so it’ll retail for a price your target market can afford, they are very unlikely to buy it no matter how much they want it. Statistically, vegetarians and vegans tend to be middle-class or lower-middle-class. For every Alicia Silverstone, there are perhaps a thousand Jane/John Does who have to budget everything with great caution because they don’t make that much money. Many of us – probably the majority – work in jobs that are more personally rewarding than financially rewarding. We teach fifth grade, counsel drug addicts, run no-kill shelters, and work for environmental organizations. On our salaries, $200 is a bit much for a pair of heels that will be out of style in a season or two (though many of us love shoes so much that we would have a whole closet full of top-of-the-line handmade vegan shoes if we had the money). A top-notch investment pair can be well worth $200, but not a trendy style.
The latest celebrity to jump on the designer bandwagon is Portia de Rossi, with her own vegan shoe line. I harbor no ill will whatsoever toward Portia (and I *heart* Ellen DeGeneres, Portia’s devastatingly funny wife), but I do wish she weren’t creating even more competition for designers who slaved through design school, humiliating internships for diva designers, and low-level jobs for even more demanding mega-diva designers. Every year, thousands of fashion design grads can’t even get interviews in the field because the market is already glutted with people who have qualifications identical to theirs. Why make the competition even worse?
Portia, if you are reading this, PLEASE hire employees with design training and PLEASE find a way to make your shoes affordable without using sweatshops. (Big tip: you can get lots of great publicity by donating a percentage of profits to animal-related causes. May I suggest Animal Acres?) I promise you won’t regret it.
