LIFE STYLE AND FASHION COLLECTIONS

Celebrities from the worlds of music, film and reality television have the kind of media reach and marketing might that most fashion designers can only imagine. It’s no wonder that the recent boom in fashion lines bearing celebrity names have customers, retailers and investors transfixed.

Some celebrity lines — like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row and Victoria Beckham’s Victoria Beckham — are built from the ground up by the stars-turned-entrepreneurs that helm them. Most are architected around licensing deals whereby a celebrity lends his or her name to the label, with varying degrees of creative input.

But however they are configured, celebrity lines are most certainly on the rise. In the last year alone, Jessica Simpson’s ten-year-old fashion label hit $1 billion in annual revenue, Rihanna was named creative director of sportwear label Puma and Topshop announced plans to launch an athletic clothing line designed by Beyoncé. Meanwhile, sources say Selfridges has placed its biggest footwear order ever for Kanye West’s Yeezy sneakers, set to go on sale next season.

When you’re a multi-hyphenate star, you not only sing/act/dance, you also design. Nowadays, building a brand is all about starting your own clothing line and adding that coveted “fashion designer” title to your C.V.