Why buy an ordinary perfume when you can buy a celebrity fragrance? Why buy a designer coat when you can buy a celebrity designer coat? In fact, why buy anything that’s not celebrity endorsed? It would clearly be inferior to a celebrity designed product or would it?!
PSFK remembers when we started school and our mother packed up a lunch for us to eat in a celebrity endorsed Thunder Cats lunch box, we also remember buying our first band T-Shirt at a Eurythmics concert. More recently we noted in our white paper “Celebrities and the web” that celeb endorsement was mutually beneficial for the brand provided the synergy between the brand and celebrity is easily understood by the consumer.
So what about fashion and celebrity? With more music stars launching their own fashion labels can we foresee the death of the mid market stand alone chain stores? After all who will want to buy Gap or American Apparel when its NOT so intrinsically linked to a celeb designer. Endorsement is fine but don’t the general public want the real deal? Will this phenomenon then spread to high fashion?
With Damian Dash announcing Kate Moss as the new face of Rocawear this is clearly a move up the fashion food chain plus British Celeb IT girl Sadie Frost’s collaboration with Jemima French already a massive hit on the London Fashion Week catwalk are the days of the traditional designer brand numbered?
Damian Dash
Frost French
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In the product design world, the designers themselves are becoming celebrities – yeah, you’ve still got the Ewan MacGregor chair that recently appeared, but Karim Rashid and Michael Graves and the rest are becoming these celeb-endorser brands when there was previously nothing. In fashion, you had designers who were celebs for being designers and as you say they are being displaced or at least joined by celebs who are NOT designers, but what do you think about the path that this is taking in the designer world?
October 1st, 2004 at 11:37 am
Had not thought of this from a product POV.
Thoughts……..
I can’t see the mass market product design market being insulated from this celebrity phenomenon at all. Its only a matter of time before Sean Paul launches a lifestyle furniture range, it has to happen. But……..
What I don’t think will happen is that Celebs will become design Icons / influencers in the same ways that Karim, Alessi or Eames are. Their products are just as much about the art of design as they are about making money and their direct influence is felt rather more in design circles rather than by the public who only feel it through the ripples these massivly influential designers create in the design community.
Also I can’t imagine that designers Karim, Graves. Lloyd Wright etc becoming household celebrities in their own rights, rather they become the celebrities of the design world per-se. Where their influence amongst designers is forever growing but only in the circle of design.
In fact the only case I can think of where a celebrity becomes a product designer and makes an impact at a core design level is Lord Lindley the Queens grandson who has made a good living for him-self producing £50,000 tables and furniture sets. (Although some may argue that his design is un-original and pandering to his peer group rather than being inspired by vision and he is undoubtedly a poor example to have mentioned in the same pargraphes as Eames (Sorry Ray)).
Conversely an example of a product designer turning Celeb would be Terrance Conran with the successful launch of his Habitat stores. Perhaps the only example where a product designer gets serious public recognition outside the designer influence circle.
So I guess there is one example that I could think of where a product designer had become recognised outside the design world. I’m intrigued about what you mean Celeb-Endorser brand, if you mean that they are brands that influence other designers then I’d agree but I don’t think this is new.
October 4th, 2004 at 6:47 am
Slightly tangental but still interesting:
Reebok is opening a celebu-level, upscale Rbk store in Hollywood complete with a VIP room stocked with Cristal, Dom Perignon and Red Bull
http://www.adrants.com/2004/10/reebok-becomes-celbu-sneaker.php
October 4th, 2004 at 1:09 pm
Now Damon Dash has introduced Rocbox branded MP3 players to his music empire.
http://blog.ziffdavis.com/sync/archive/2004/10/04.aspx
October 5th, 2004 at 10:42 am
Hip Hop Star Brands: http://www.nypost.com/business/31673.htm
October 12th, 2004 at 1:57 pm
Really nice story, thanks,
July 5th, 2005 at 12:24 pm
hello sir,
Am a fashion designer and l seek for a catalogue to be in vogue in fashion world,l need it so much if u can get it for me.
my contact phone number 2348030733252 to reach me. thanks please get back to me.
July 30th, 2005 at 12:31 pm
Trends are always interesting, where do they start, where do they end, where do they go.
Here we are 10 months later and really has anything changed with this story.
Celebrity Sinks She-She While Saving Apparel
http://www.adquack.com/article117.html
August 1st, 2005 at 1:33 am
I am an upcoming fashion designer, who is currently in rolled at IADT in SAN ANTONIO, TX. . my company is called HATER WEAR I design everything under my label along with a young lady name Ava Mccall . The death of the fashion designer. Real talk this will never happen. Society is not fooled by this , people with big money as we call them, spend money on real designers, people like myself, before I learned; spent money on items that was endorsed by basket ball ,football players, singers or movie stars, soon everyone will wake up just as I have . The fashion world will belong back to the fashion designers of yesterday; and those of us up coming designers of today. Then your article will read “ Long Live the Fashion Designers”.
October 13th, 2007 at 4:55 pm