The fashion industry is a multi-billion dollar global enterprise, and while millions watch it closely it is highlighted by the celebrities that are seen showing off various styles.
By wearing a designers gown to a red-carpet event such as the Golden Globes or the Oscars, that designer’s revenue often increases by hundreds of thousands of dollars!
With that sort of attention given to particular styles and who is wearing them, it is no wonder that celebrities are encouraged to lend their name to lines of clothing, shoes, handbags, fragrances, jewelry, etc.
This was brought to mind recently when I read that Kate Hudson was renewing her agreement with Ann Taylor to represent them. Not only that, but she is helping design a special new line for them that will be released this year in May.
In Kate’s case, she will be working with Lisa Axelson, the creative director at Ann Taylor.
In many cases the actual designs are created by some unknown fashion designer and approved by the celebrity, then released under their name. There was a great discussion of this on Jezebel a couple of years ago – the comments at the end of the article are just as good as the article itself!
If you haven’t read it already, check it out here.
They help put some of this celebrity design trend into perspective. Often you will read about what these celebrities are making with their designer lines – that they are worth millions or even a billion dollars because the lines containing their name is selling for hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Once you realize that the royalties received by theses stars in many cases is a small percentage of gross sales, and probably split with whoever it was that negotiated the deal – the actual dollars are much less than “reported.”
Of course, saying that, it is probably still several million dollars, which for most of us would be HUGE, even if it isn’t even close to a billion…. I could live with that!
Oscar de la Renta looks down his nose on these celebrity lines, saying that he is still in the process of learning his craft of designing after 45 years in the business – he is just not impressed by those who think they can design because they are famous.
But I agree with Jezebel’s position that most of these people aren’t designing at all, they are just pointing to what they like…Â And someone slaps a label with their name on it and – voila!
So what IS being reported as earnings for some of these designing celebrities? Even assuming these numbers are inflated based on the discussion we have been having, these dollar figures associated with celebrities are impressive:
Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsens fashion embpire is estimated to be worth $1 billion.
Jessica Simpson’s line earned $750 million in 2010 (this was the example used in the Jezebel article!)
Rocawear, co-founded by rapper Jay-Z, averages more than $700 million in sales per year
Victoria Beckham’s line of handbags and dresses brought in $95 million in sales in 2011. (If she is successful in creating a line of baby clothing for Prince William and Kate Middleton this could go much higher for her!)
Gwen Stefani’s line of Asian and South American inspired clothing earns about $90 million per year.
Ah yes, the rich just keep getting richer…
What do you think of celebrity designers?
Image by LGEPR, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
