Gone are the days when a celebrity's biggest business announcement would be the reveal of a sickly-sweet-yet-affordable high street perfume. Nowadays our A-list elite have their sights on more esteemed echelons. Now they want to become creative directors.
And they're succeeding. Earlier this year, Pharrell Williams took over the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris to reveal his first collection since being appointed creative director at legendary French fashion house Louis Vuitton, and just this week A$AP Rocky was announced as PUMA's new Creative Director for its Formula 1 partnership. Rocky's partner Rihanna has also found success in this industry, with her collaborative lingerie brand Fenty X Savage recently estimated to be valued at around $3 billion (£2.5bn) were it to go public.
And where there's smoke (a burgeoning social or fashion trend), there's fire (the Kardashians). After the pursuit of numerous other side hustles, some successful, some not, the socialites-turned-business-moguls have also set their sights on the fashion world.
Khloe Kardashian's size-inclusive denim brand Good American, which was established back in 2016, managed to drive $200 million (£165m) in annual sales last year and has recently opened its first physical store in Los Angeles this summer. Kim Kardashian's shapewear brand Skims came shortly afterwards, in 2019, and has reached an estimated valuation of $4bn in less than five years. Just yesterday, Kim announced a new Skims menswear line, with Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr fronting the campaign.
But that wasn't the only big fashion news to come out of the Kardashian clan this week. Kim's half-sister, Kylie Jenner, is also launching a clothing line. The youngest of the Kar-Jenners made her announcement yesterday via a minimalist Instagram post which pictured her wearing a brown trench coat with red heels, sitting on a carpeted floor. "Meet Khy," is all it said, but the internet-literate and Kardashian-learned everywhere know what it really means: "Hi, you've been calling me the best dressed Kardashian for over a year, so now I'm going to monetise it."
Sure, Kylie's well dressed, at least in comparison to some of the Instagram-famous faces today (and if you purposefully redact any memories of her 2022 Met Gala outfit), but does she really need a fashion brand? And does her entry into the fashion world signal the start of something big, reminiscent of when every celebrity and their nan decided to start a beauty brand? (Which they're still doing to this day: Georgia May Jagger's was only announced last week).
Part of the reason Kylie's style has been so generally well received is because she often champions young, up-and-coming designers, such as Chet Lo, Knwls, Poster Girl and Art School. These brands and designers may be well-recognised names now, but they were far less known back in 2020 and 2021, when they started cropping up all over Jenner's socials.
Jenner helped to boost these small-time designers to stardom, giving them some much-needed publicity to get their brands off the ground. But if those Instagram posts start directing Jenner's fashion fans back to her own brand, Khy, what happens to the little guys?
And what happens if Kylie is, as she often is, just one of the first celebrities at the crest of an oncoming wave, leading A-listers everywhere to ponder whether their personal style has actually been their "calling" all along? With several up-and-coming designers unable to participate in fashion month this year due to costs, and even the much-hyped Dilara FindikoÄlu sitting it out, this potential onslaught of celebrity creative directors poses a risk to actual designers already in dire need of funds and publicity.
As chief executive of the British Fashion Council Caroline Rush said yesterday: “It’s getting harder and brands are pulling back." Perhaps the people who should really be pulling back are the celebrities, lest we be drowned in sub-par styling by untrained A-listers trying to make a bigger buck.
