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Will any of these star styles have staying power?
(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) ABOUT once a month somebody asks me to write a piece or give a quote on Audrey Hepburn's style. It's been 46 years since she made her appearance as Holly Golightly, for ever enshrined in our memory as the perfect girl in the perfect black dress in Breakfast At Tiffany's.
Now, whenever anybody does a story on black dresses, or even when one is looking in the shops to buy one, that image pops up. Audrey Hepburn, with her hair piled high and sleeveless black sheath, encapsulates the zenith of celebrity style fame and fashion, morphed into a lasting, inspirational image.
It's what all the stores are looking for in their much publicised celebrity fashion brands.
Recently H&M launched its Madonna range (corset belts and white shirts), nobody could have escaped knowing that Kate Moss's collection for Topshop hit the shops last week (faux vintage dresses and halter necks) and next week it's Lily Allen's turn for New Look, launched with an instore performance - expect brightly coloured prom dresses.
The partnership between fashion and celebrity has grown hugely over the past decade. Where once models were the faces of fashion, now it's movie stars and socialites.
When I took over at Vogue in the early Nineties, it was the very occasional fashion magazine cover that didn't feature a model, now it's the reverse. And in a strangely self-destructive act, it was the models, in part, that killed themselves off.
The success of the supermodels of the Eighties, those glamazon girls striding the Versace catwalk - Linda, Cindy, Christy et al - getting out of bed with a calculator adding up their worth per minute, was also what ultimately caused their downfall.
At the peak of these girls' careers, designers were becoming uncomfortable in their dependency on a handful of models to appear in their ad campaigns and fashion shows. The fees were growing to unrealistic levels and the fame of the models was overtaking that of the designers and their clothes.
Who was the boss around here?
So eventually the supermodels were replaced by other people to publicise fashion, to appear not on the catwalk but in the front row of shows, to feature in their ad campaigns and to feed the ever growing paparazzi-fuelled culture.
And those people were young actresses, pop stars, and sports stars - in other words, celebrities.
Once it became apparent that celebrities could sell clothes, asking them to put their name to ranges cast in their own style wasn't a great leap. And it's celebrity style that's for sale, not celebrities' clothes.
The girl who's going to snap up a Lily Allen prom dress at New Look is not only buying a prom dress - she's buying what Lily Allen represents; success, youth, fame, cheek, chutzpah.
That prom dress is going to mark you as a Lily type of girl and, at New Look prices, it's going to be less trouble and less money than trawling the vintage stores.
From the High Street's standpoint, another plus in celebrity ranges is that they provide a face to front the clothes. Nobody is interested in the teams of faceless designers behind the High Street chains, and it's helpful to be able to field a person who encapsulates the brand.
Many of the most successful designers of our times have found themselves their most effective advertising.
How often do you see a suntanned Giorgio Armani smiling with his arms flung over beautiful actresses, or a jeans clad Ralph Lauren photographed in one of his exquisite mansions?
The big question is: how long will a celebrity have staying power? In the world of celebrity fragrance, the big bucks are made quickly on the back of that person's moment of fame. The perfumes are snapped up, but no J-Lo or Jordan scent will ever mimic the success of those from Chanel or Dior.
Most celebrity collections are envisaged as one-hit wonders trading in on fame at its peak.
In signing Kate Moss to turn out a range which grows, rather than simply being a one- off, Topshop boss Philip Green is hoping to buck the trend.
Watch this space.
TAMARA MELLON, the Jimmy Choo empress, is undergoing a gruelling time in court, where she is testifying against her ex-husband, Matthew Mellon.
But as a very canny businesswoman, she will know that at least it will be a good PR opportunity for her, since nobody wears their Jimmy Choo's as well as she.
Much as Tamara likes her heels, she told me a funny story recently about visiting a school she was hoping would give a place to her young daughter.
Previously, a snobby London school had told her that she (note she, not her daughter) had appeared too over the top for their taste, and she was determined not to make the same mistake again: 'You should have seen me at the interview - I was dressed like a nun and wearing flats,' she told me.
'Last time, I guess the five-inch croc heels hadn't helped.' Judging by the pictures of Tamara on her way to court in just such a pair, she obviously feels they won't have a similar effect on the jury.
THIS is the summer of the slogan.
It's been some time since slogans made an appearance on the fashion register but right now you can't move for wordy witticisms.
T-shirt messaging - which over the years has been through its highs and lows but, let's face it, has been more at home in the student union than Boujis - has now become cool again.
Fashion addicts love the House of Holland range with its in-jokes ('Get Yer Freak On Giles Deacon' or 'Do Me Daily Christopher Bailey') but really anything other than football strips will do right now.
In the wake of Anya Hindmarch's 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag', look out for a multitude of copycat scribbles on all manner of accessories. But don't spend a fortune - this trend is not going to last.
Layers that hide the lumps I DON'T know how I would have survived if I had lived during a time when you couldn't layer your clothes.
The thought of all those neat dresses and suits of the Forties and Fifties is terrifying - so very unforgiving.
The great advantage of layers is that you can disguise all manner of unsatisfactory elements of your body, since they act as a very effective visual distraction.
If you wear a simple unlayered shape, you will have a clean line but if you add in layers, the various hemlines distract the eye and make it easier to get away with lumps and bumps.
When you layer T-shirts, you are able to build a thick enough weight of fabric to hide that unpleasant bulge which is so easy to gain around the bra straps or trouser tops.
You need to make sure each layer is thin enough for this to work well, but nowadays most of the High Street stores offer very fine cottons and you can use silky camisoles. An extra long T-shirt covered by a tighter, shorter one will give you shape without revealing too much flab. It's also an excellent device to deal with upper arms - try several cap sleeves in layers or a vest shape over short sleeves.
Layers work best if they are in complementary but contrasting colours - either all techno hues or dusty colours, for example - and look better in blocks of colour rather than in prints.
This season, you can do layers in a more substantial way than just T-shirts.
If you can handle leggings, you can wear them under a shortish skirt and a longish loose top, or try, as I saw on one girl the other day, wearing them under short shorts with an extra long jacket (she did have fabulous legs).
Italian fashion house Marni showed cropped racing stripe leggings under all their tunic dresses and then added another layer of a cropped jacket. I wouldn't recommend it for a very formal event but it's great for everyday.
Copyright 2007 Daily Mail. Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Europe Intelligence Wire.
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