Kate Moss For Topshop
Some of the biggest names in fashion are taking to the high street to design new ranges for some of our favourite stores. Giles, Luella and Cavalli have all taken up the mainstream challenge but the big question is: Can they cut it away from the catwalk?
Are they actually any good? Are we just buying them for the sake of having a little bit of designer hanging in our wardrobe, rather than a fantastic piece of clothing? Female First check out just how well designers really do on the high street.
In theory the idea is brilliant. It is a concept that allows shops to offer something different to their customers while designers get the chance to raise their profile by appealing to a mass market.
However, all too often the items aren’t dissimilar to the rest of the range the shop offers. Apart from one thing - the overly inflated price tag.
The fact is many of the designer collaborations attempt to produce clothes based on their own style, but on a high street budget. This means the results are often poor and uninspiring.
Creating expensive looking pieces cheaply merely results in bad fabrics and bad fits. They are forward-thinking clothes that never see the light of day after you get them home and realise that although you have a bit of Karl Lagerfeld for H&M in your hands, it actually looks hideous.
Take Giles Deacon for New Look. After winning Designer of the Year and with Drew Barrymore on board to model the first collection it seemed like the perfect partnership for people wanting a bit of class on the high street.
However, the end result was too edgy and catwalk for New Look’s target customer and the range didn’t offer enough varying items.
Of course, it’s not all been bad, there have been some successful partnerships over the years like Stella McCartney’s popular collection for H&M, Luella at Target in America or the Designers at Debenhams.
It appears that the slightly lower profile designer collaborations fare much better. Celia Birtwell, Ann-Sofie Back and Christopher Kane at Topshop, for example.
As if this wasn’t enough excitement to cope with, the new trend for celebrity designed ranges has also taken the high street by storm.
Perhaps one of the most talked about collaborations was Kate Moss for Topshop. After a much anticipated launch and a full on frenzy to buy the few limited edition dresses, the only things left were vest tops and denim hotpants.
Yes, it’s Kate’s style summed up in two items of clothing, but it’s also boring and no different to anything else you could buy in Topshop.
With her collection being pulled from many stores due to poor sales it seems the lure of a celebrity inspired piece isn’t strong enough to really create the sales companies hope for.
Madonna’s work with H&M meant the Swedish brand was able to raise its profile stateside, however in Britain her clothes were left languishing on racks and rails. And then there was the swimwear collection fronted by Kylie Minogue. Can anyone even remember that?
Celebrity designs for the high street are becoming more about grabbing a big name than the clothes.
Angie Hulme, designer with hip independent brand Me and Yu said: “Celebrity endorsed ranges are very prevalent at the moment but I think that they are a bit of a fashion in themselves and won't continue to be as widespread as they are at the moment.â€
One of the slightly more accessible pairings was Lily Allen for New Look. A new teen icon she aimed to create a range of clothing that was appealing to girls who didn’t have that size 6 figure needed to pull off a tiny Kate Moss floral dress.
Although it wasn’t hugely successful and there certainly weren’t hoards of shoppers queuing to get their hands on the stock, a-la Ms Moss’s collection, compared to the Giles Deacon range ‘Lily Loves’ did help raise the store’s profile considerably.
Other celebrities jumping on the designing bandwagon include Penelope and Monica Cruz who have created a collection for Spanish store Mango. Far more successful than some of the British partnerships the secret lies in the good quality, well targeted clothes.
Many famous faces, including the likes of Sienna and Savannah Miller, Sarah Jessica Parker, Victoria Beckham and Gwen Stefani have now all launched their own clothing ranges.
While these may give us an insight into what really makes our fave fashion icons tick, it’s also just a fast-track way to get clothes into Selfridges and Browns. Celebrities use their status to soar to the top of the fashion stakes, compared to the years of hard work and effort that new designers put in just to get noticed.
Angie Hulme also thinks that major stores creating celebrity collaborations can affect smaller design retailers. “The major stores offer celebrity endorsed ranges as a way to push a more concise design-led collection and perhaps this is the area which can cause conflict with small labels and boutiques who have their own shops - if they can get it on the high street why come to us,†she said
Although the idea of a celebrity designed range is always exciting amidst a flurry of publicity and launch parties is this really about marketing and promotion for both the star and the company? Just because someone looks stylish wearing clothes made by other people, it doesn’t mean they can do a better job of designing than those already employed by shops after years of training.
The concept still has some shelf life left yet but it undoubtedly won’t be long before the novelty wears off.
Ultimately, there’s a reason we have a difference between designer clothes and the high street. They’re two different worlds and although we’d all dearly love to be able to afford the amount of posh clobber Victoria Beckham has in her wardrobe, the truth is fashion wouldn’t be the same if everything was accessible to all.
Designers should stick to the glamorous and expensive and the high street should keep to what they’re good at – using the catwalks for inspiration and making the kind of great clothes we know they can.
Female First - Jacqueline Farrer
Some of the biggest names in fashion are taking to the high street to design new ranges for some of our favourite stores. Giles, Luella and Cavalli have all taken up the mainstream challenge but the big question is: Can they cut it away from the catwalk?
Are they actually any good? Are we just buying them for the sake of having a little bit of designer hanging in our wardrobe, rather than a fantastic piece of clothing? Female First check out just how well designers really do on the high street.
In theory the idea is brilliant. It is a concept that allows shops to offer something different to their customers while designers get the chance to raise their profile by appealing to a mass market.
However, all too often the items aren’t dissimilar to the rest of the range the shop offers. Apart from one thing - the overly inflated price tag.
The fact is many of the designer collaborations attempt to produce clothes based on their own style, but on a high street budget. This means the results are often poor and uninspiring.
Creating expensive looking pieces cheaply merely results in bad fabrics and bad fits. They are forward-thinking clothes that never see the light of day after you get them home and realise that although you have a bit of Karl Lagerfeld for H&M in your hands, it actually looks hideous.
Take Giles Deacon for New Look. After winning Designer of the Year and with Drew Barrymore on board to model the first collection it seemed like the perfect partnership for people wanting a bit of class on the high street.
However, the end result was too edgy and catwalk for New Look’s target customer and the range didn’t offer enough varying items.
Of course, it’s not all been bad, there have been some successful partnerships over the years like Stella McCartney’s popular collection for H&M, Luella at Target in America or the Designers at Debenhams.
It appears that the slightly lower profile designer collaborations fare much better. Celia Birtwell, Ann-Sofie Back and Christopher Kane at Topshop, for example.
As if this wasn’t enough excitement to cope with, the new trend for celebrity designed ranges has also taken the high street by storm.
Perhaps one of the most talked about collaborations was Kate Moss for Topshop. After a much anticipated launch and a full on frenzy to buy the few limited edition dresses, the only things left were vest tops and denim hotpants.
Yes, it’s Kate’s style summed up in two items of clothing, but it’s also boring and no different to anything else you could buy in Topshop.
With her collection being pulled from many stores due to poor sales it seems the lure of a celebrity inspired piece isn’t strong enough to really create the sales companies hope for.
Madonna’s work with H&M meant the Swedish brand was able to raise its profile stateside, however in Britain her clothes were left languishing on racks and rails. And then there was the swimwear collection fronted by Kylie Minogue. Can anyone even remember that?
Celebrity designs for the high street are becoming more about grabbing a big name than the clothes.
Angie Hulme, designer with hip independent brand Me and Yu said: “Celebrity endorsed ranges are very prevalent at the moment but I think that they are a bit of a fashion in themselves and won't continue to be as widespread as they are at the moment.â€
One of the slightly more accessible pairings was Lily Allen for New Look. A new teen icon she aimed to create a range of clothing that was appealing to girls who didn’t have that size 6 figure needed to pull off a tiny Kate Moss floral dress.