{"id":10272,"date":"2015-03-13T13:34:57","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T18:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=10272"},"modified":"2015-03-13T13:36:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T18:36:42","slug":"wsj-columnists-new-book-explains-fashion-celebrity-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wsj-columnists-new-book-explains-fashion-celebrity-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"WSJ columnist’s new book explains fashion, celebrity relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mallory Hughes<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the end of fashion!\u201d<\/p>\n

Teri Agins, veteran fashion columnist for The Wall Street Journal and author of two books about the business of fashion, said this in 1999 after Giorgio Armani<\/a> produced the first collection of men\u2019s suits without lining to make them more comfortable.<\/p>\n

In October, roughly 16 years later, Agins, The Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u2019s first fashion reporter, published her latest book, \u201cHijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers\u201d (Penguin\u00a0Random House<\/a>, $28). In it she explains how celebrities have simultaneously revolutionized and marginalized the art of style.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cCelebrities are making money doing more as a way to monetize fame,\u201d Agins said in a recent, nearly two-hour interview about her book and the state of fashion. She provided an insider\u2019s view of the industry\u2019s evolution and anecdotal evidence to support her criticism of the growing role that celebrities play in the fashion world.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy<\/a>
Teri Agins is the journalist who developed The Wall Street Journal’s fashion beat. She is now a columnist for the Journal and the author of two books on the business of fashion. (Penguin Random House\/Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Agins has covered fashion for more than 25 years at The Wall Street Journal, and her writing has also appeared in Vogue<\/em><\/a> and Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/em><\/a>. She has received of the Eugenia Sheppard Award for Excellence in Fashion Journalism by the Council of Fashion Designers of America<\/a> in 2004, and her first book published in 2000, \u201cThe End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever\u201d (HarperCollins<\/a>, $14.95), discusses how marketing changed the clothing business for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe marketplace has gotten very crowded and the consumer can get confused,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat should they gravitate to?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the fashion industry\u2019s nagging imposters, the celebrities, who have the answer and show the consumer exactly what they didn\u2019t know they needed, just by attaching their name to it.<\/p>\n

Fashion has a long history of celebrities in other fields crashing its gates. In 1927, tennis player Rene Lacoste<\/a> created the first fashion logo and celebrity line. He introduced the now-ubiquitous sport-shirt style because he was tired of playing tennis in uncomfortable clothes.<\/p>\n

Thirty years later Givenchy<\/a> launched a perfume, L\u2019Interdit, using Audrey Hepburn\u2019s classic image as a potent sales tool. In 1987, Elizabeth Taylor launched the first official celebrity fragrance, Passion, with estimated sales of more than $40 million in its second year, creating a fad that lasted well throughout the \u201890s.<\/p>\n

But not until the advent of the Internet, Agins said, when millions of consumers around the world started following celebrities obsessively, did the trend catch fire.<\/p>\n

\n

“This is the end of fashion!”
\n– Teri Agins, 1999<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In 2005, after semi-launching an unsuccessful jeans line, establishing a below-average acting career and stating the infamous \u201cchicken or fish\u201d line, Jessica Simpson partnered with Vince Camuto<\/a>, who Agins referred to as \u201cMr. Shoe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf all people, she should\u2019ve been the one to fail,\u201d Agins said. \u201cShe went with the right guy. He turns this thing into something.\u201d<\/p>\n

And a whole bunch of something it was. Simpson\u2019s shoe line, with prices ranging from $69 to $89, was a hit; it has since expanded to handbags, sportswear and more. It has become one of the most sought-after labels at Macy\u2019s<\/a>, bringing in about $1 billion in annual retails sales at the end of 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though they [consumers] had a negative impression [of Simpson], it shows they really wanted to buy,\u201d Agins said. \u201cIt was the ultimate success.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some stars have followed suit, Madonna<\/a>\u2019s with her line at Kohl\u2019s<\/a> or the Kardashians\u2019 at Sears<\/a>, others celebrities\u2019 designs made their way to the runways through a more traditional path.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy<\/a>
Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers, written by veteran fashion columnist Teri Agins, was published in October 2014.
(Penguin Random House\/Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Agins points to Victoria Beckham<\/a> and the Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley. Yes, all three were famous long before they were fashion designers, but they were smart enough to start very small when they entered the fashion world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey knew they had to work for it,\u201d Agins said. \u201cAnd they wanted to be taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The luxury line by the Olsen sisters, The Row<\/a>, is specifically tailored to the \u201cgolden-gated community of slender, affluent women who dreamed of owning the very best of the basics,\u201d Agins wrote, with $260 T-shirts and $2,950 lambskin leather leggings. She estimated their 2013 annual retail sales to be more than $50 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose women bought that because they were interested in fashion,\u201d Agins said. \u201cThose women were not fans or interested in a little stardom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Department store labels, shoe lines, fragrances, handbags; the list of celebrity-influenced products is endless, making money and capturing consumers by the celebrity\u2019s name alone. This is depressingly apparent to non-celebrity designers who have dedicated their entire careers to the craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, you went to FIT<\/a> [New York\u2019s Fashion Institute of Technology] or Parson\u2019s<\/a> [School of Design in New York City] and you majored and had internships and were slogging away on 7th<\/sup> Avenue,\u201d Agins said. \u201cHopefully you land on PR and even then, you\u2019re still duking it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why she calls the celebrities hijackers, not designers.<\/p>\n

But in general, their emergence has forced non-celebrity designers to create affordable lines as well as ultra-luxury collections. The presence of well-designed celebrity lines proves that \u201cthe best creators of fashion at every level can win,\u201d Agins wrote.<\/p>\n

And, as she wrote in her book, how can that possibly not be a good thing?<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Naanou’s photo, taken from the front row at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Moscow, Russia. (Alex Naanou \/ Creative Commons<\/a>)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mallory Hughes \u201cThis is the end of fashion!\u201d Teri Agins, veteran fashion columnist for The Wall Street Journal and author of two books about the business of fashion, said this in 1999 after Giorgio Armani produced the first collection of men\u2019s suits without lining to make them more comfortable. In October, roughly 16 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":10691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,27,243],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-10272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-business","category-winter-2015","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nWSJ columnist's new book explains fashion, celebrity relationship - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wsj-columnists-new-book-explains-fashion-celebrity-relationship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WSJ columnist's new book explains fashion, celebrity relationship - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Mallory Hughes \u201cThis is the end of fashion!\u201d Teri Agins, veteran fashion columnist for The Wall Street Journal and author of two books about the business of fashion, said this in 1999 after Giorgio Armani produced the first collection of men\u2019s suits without lining to make them more comfortable. 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