Unlike most celebrity lines that lack any serious fashion credibility, William Rast, which is partly owned by Justin Timberlake, has managed to attract not only buzz, but also attention from the most powerful woman in fashion – Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (she attended the Fall/Winter 2009 William Rast Show in New York). Timberlake has always been quick to deflect any creative input away from himself and onto the team of the professional designers he has expertly surrounded himself with, so it comes as little surprise that while J. Lindeberg founder Johan Lindeberg has cut ties with his eponymous label, he and his wife Marcella have had significant input working for William Rast for over three seasons.
Johan and Marcella have been key components in William Rast’s success, coming-up with some of the rock-inspired designs that have made the line as covetable as it is. In fact, the brand just recently launched in London’s Selfridges where Timberlake told Vogue.com that the collection is “really for the kind of girls we like. When creating the collection we were thinking of girls like Carré Otis or Debbie Harry – a real sexy tomboy girl who looks good without trying.”
William Rast co-founder Trace Ayala remarked that his label is still young, and that he and his team are still creating collections “to establish the William Rast DNA,” adding – “honestly, I think we came along at exactly the right time. If we had launched any later or any earlier we would have been dead. As it is, we are young enough that we are a fresh brand for suppliers, but established enough that they can trust us in this economy. We’ve been very lucky.”
Images courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.
