Victoria Beckham's Fashion Triumph
Plus some advice for budding designer Kanye West.
We're no less cynical than Vivienne Westwood about Kate Middleton and her boring outfits earning a spot on Vanity Fair's 72nd annual best dressed list, but we're not always so negative about the crossover between celebrity and fashion. There is one British brunette in particular (no, not Alexa Chung) who is consistently making people kick themselves in the shins for admitting that her taste in fashion is actually rather impeccable - and that is the woman formerly known as Posh Spice.
Since Victoria Beckham debuted her first dress collection at New York Fashion Week back in 2009, her designs have consistently been met with high acclaim. It's not like she fell into the world of fashion from absolutely nowhere - she can work a corseted evening gown like a boss, and she even climbed into a (probably normal-sized) shopping bag for a Marc Jacobs campaign. But the secret to her recent success is not nearly as painful or kooky. It's timeless design, understated presentation and - take note, Kanye - a humble approach to her talents. And having a classy dude like Roland Mouret for a friend can't have hurt either.
But it's not always smooth sailing when you're a celebrity trying to add a '-turned-designer' to the end of your designation. Here are just a select few of the good, the bad and the House of Dereons of celebrity fashion lines:
The Olsen Twins. You might argue that it's easy to make the transition from fashion icon to fashion designer. But when much of your acclaim has come from personal style blogs gushing over photographs like this, then the fact that Style.com deemed your debut collection "anonymously chic" because you don't like the world "minimal" really deserves some recognition.
Gwen Stefani is an obvious fashion icon. Some people don't like her L.A.M.B line and accuse Gwen of repeating trends. But obviously those people just don't understand the concept of high-fashion rasta - like "minimal", it's an aesthetic. Duh.
Jennifer Lopez' Sweetface is now defunct, but from the two years she spent regurgitating high street trends and covering them in fur and glitter she did gain some pearls of wisdom. These were shared on Glamour.com yesterday, when J-Lo proved she actually gave pretty good style advice.
House of Dereon is not your friend. Hell, it's not even Beyonce's friend.
We hope Kanye takes a leaf out of VB's book.
Words: Hannah Ongley
