tFS: Are designers becoming too celebrity obsessed? Is there too much focus now on Rihanna wearing a mesh top at dinner with Olivier Rousteing, rather than that mesh top he created for Balmain’s collection?
TA: I don’t think so. If the designer is delivering on the sales floor, that’s all that matters. People said the same thing about Isaac Mizrahi in the 90s. They thought he should spend more time focusing on his clothes than being in movies or doing cameos or being on Jeopardy. I don’t know if that ultimately is what took him down or ran him out of business in the late 90s. But he was a damn good designer and was doing some of the most creative and exciting things. The design studio was great, but he didn’t have the underpinnings of a good business…but the funny thing is, Isaac Mizrahi 2.0, the reborn Isaac, because he had all the notoriety, it allowed him to get back into the business. And he carved out a new niche. He didn’t become the high-end darling he was in the past, but he became a very successful businessman. He sold clothes at Target, QVC and he has a licensing business, all of which he got with the help of his celebrity. The funny thing is that celebrity can really help a designer to a certain point. But at the end of the day, you’re still going to have to have the solid business fundamentals that you’d have in any fashion company.
But what you’re talking about, the water cooler gossip that goes on in the fashion beltway — I think most consumers don’t even follow the stuff that closely. They know a little bit, but they’re not following that close. It’s the same thing with the Kardashians. Those clothes at Sears are really kind of mediocre, but there is a critical mass of people who like those things. Now, Sears is having its own problems, so we don’t know how all that’s affecting the manufacturing and marketing of those clothes. But I will say — Kim Kardashian has several million Twitter followers, the other girls are in the deep millions on theirs, too. You can’t help but know that it’s clear that they have some traction left in them. For how long? I don’t know. Like anything, this could peter out after a while. We saw the rise and fall of Paris Hilton, but not quite because she’s still got 60 stores in the Middle East, South America and other places. She’s not a force in fashion at all, but she has a fashion footprint someplace else. As for Kimye…I’m not sure if they’ll be invited back to Paris next season.
