Celebrities: Can’t Live with ‘em…
In the fashion industry, there are a few simple truths: something better is always around the corner, money matters, and a famous face or name can get you anything— actually, this is true of most things in life.
Oddly, in fashion, these truths are terribly kept secrets, like Uncle Jim-Bob’s problem with the bottle (no, I don’t have an Uncle Jim-Bob).
Those in high-fashion, who consider themselves “style crusaders” will denounce the word trends and say they are true to themselves, only wearing classic pieces. However, the $300 leather leggings they’re sporting say otherwise. Magazine editors will gasp at the notion that their editorial integrity is even slightly compromised by the magazine’s advertising profits, but we all know the truth. However, the dirtiest secret of all is the most obvious— celebrities rule.
There was recently an article on NY Magazine’s Cut Blog— Has Reality TV Made Rachel Zoe More High-Fashion?— detailing Rachel Zoe’s ability to walk the line between elitist high-fashion and celeb-centric low-brow duds, but in this day and age, if you can’t balance the high and low brow, you’ll get nowhere.
Fifty years ago, celebrities were intangible. They were the epitome of class and maybe even decadence. They were high-fashion in every sense of the word. Today, celebrities are accessible. They strive to seem like your best friend. They have to make you feel as if you can relate, or we, the general public, bitch and tear them apart for being secretive and snooty.
What does this have to do with fashion?
I was once told by an internship employer, “We don’t do celebrities. They have nothing to do with fashion,” but through the years, I’ve realized how incorrect that statement was, or at least, the last half of it.
Without a famous name or a famous face to wear the clothes and company will go under. Publicists fight to get their clients clothes on the backs of celebrities whether for the cover of Vogue, a scene in a mildly successful TV series, or pairing with Ugg boots while grocery shopping. If Whitney Port didn’t “work” at Diane von Furstenberg, non-fashion-obsessed, fourteen-year-old girls wouldn’t be half as intrigued and obsessed with the woman and her work as they are. If Michael Kors wasn’t a judge on Project Runway, making him a celebrity in his own right, he would just be another label in these same girl’s mother’s closets. And, if Rachel Zoe hadn’t been involved in an early-millennial scandal with Lindsey Lohan and Nicole Richie she wouldn’t be half as notable as she is now.
Of course, there is the argument many trends are being started by bloggers and street style websites, but these people are being idolized like celebrities creating a sub-genre of sorts.
“All too often, pure fashion is high-brow, and celebrity fashion is low-brow. It seems the more exposure fashion personalities like Zoe get, the more they’re likely to gravitate toward the more commercial and celebrity veins of work…But Zoe seems to be moving seamlessly between the world of high fashion, mass fashion, and celebrity… So Zoe is in a rare position, but one that is fascinating to watch, where elitist and mass fashion exist in harmony,” writes Amy Odell, but what is that saying about the fashion industry? Is it moving towards a lower standard of artistic expression— the public’s interest in procuring couture is almost nonexistent, and ready-to-wear has become more like wear-it-now with the influx of mass market knockoffs— or will we start to see more of what I call, the Wang-effect (i.e. $300 stretched out tank tops like those from Alexander Wang’s T collection)?
I’m not particularly a fan of the institution of fame. I believe that idolizing a person for their closet is pointless because I live a make due kind of life. Idolizing a person for their talent and passion is a completely different situation and a different subject all together. I feel the most exhausted by the clout of the famous and infamous around fashion week. I’ve ranted about the excessive amounts they are allegedly paid to sit front row at shows and constantly scoff at their attempts to create fashion lines, but I also understand their strange necessity. I don’t have answers to any of the questions, but I do know that celebrities will have a giant influence in the future of the industry, whether we like it or not.
