It would seem that today’s celebrities are more brimming with talent than ever before. The likes of Shirley Temple and Gene Kelly could sing, dance and act, sure, but they didn’t have their own fragrances – or clothing lines. Is it an insatiable craving for power and money then that drives these people or do they genuinely believe they have what it takes to be the next Coco Chanel or Tom Ford?
As if winning a Grammy and essentially conquering the musical universe this year with the album Only by Night wasn’t quite enough for the band, Kings of Leon have recently launched their own clothing line. Together with Paris-based creative collective, ‘Surface to Air’, they’ve designed a limited collection of menswear and christened it ‘S2A X KOL’. Originally the collection was exclusive to the Danish store ‘Paris Texas’ , but it will be available in the UK in ‘The Shop’ at King’s Road, Chelsea, London and in select stores across the US later this month.
As a whole, the line is pretty up-to-date and wearable. The twelve piece collection consists of flannel shirts in mostly red and green, t-shirts, a leather jacket, patchwork drain-pipe jeans, a black fedora, boots, a woven belt, a scarf, guitar straps and a red bandana (because everyone needs one of those!). The shirts and denim aren’t half bad and reflect well the band’s cool, chilled Americana look.
However, take a closer look at the price tag and you may feel rather nauseous or, indeed, inclined to walk away. Unless you’re fortunate enough to have particularly generous parents or an exceptionally large bank account, chances are you won’t be dying to throw away €120 on a flannel shirt or €130 on a scarf any time soon. Yet these are the hefty sums that are expected to lure us in. Maybe the stomach-churning figures could be justified if the pieces were made of cashmere or silk, but alas, they’re not. Essentially, one could find almost identical shirts and jeans in Topman or River Island for only a fraction of the price.
Arguably, brands such as Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger charge similar prices and though I’m not in a position to compare the quality of their clothing to the quality of S2A X KOL, I think it’s fair to say that a fairly large chunk of what we’re paying is for the name rather than the product itself. Applying that hypothesis to the current situation would lead us to conclude that what we’re really paying for is not the shirt or the scarf, rather a little label with the letters ‘KOL’ on it.
A twelve year old might be forgiven for yearning for a ‘Stuff by Duff’ top, a range by Disney Channel star, Hilary Duff, purely for the fact that it has a connection to the tween idol, but trying to imagine anyone over the age of sixteen wanting to pay €800 for a leather jacket designed by their favourite artist is just a little bit perturbing I think.
Not that I have anything against the band, in fact I’m probably guilty of overplaying ‘Sex on Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’ to an annoying extent, but just because they make some pretty sweet music doesn’t automatically make them budding fashion designers. If the likes of Giorgio Armani or Vivienne Westwood were to suddenly announce that they were going to pursue careers in music, there would be many-a brow raised. Not only that, there would be absolute pandemonium from the many millions of self-declared avid music fans out there. This can be seen by the fact that wearing a band t-shirt in the company of music junkies tends to attract such questions as ‘Do you even know any of their songs?’, ‘Do you know anything about them?’, ‘When’s the last time you listened to their album?’ and my personal favourite, ‘You shouldn’t wear it just for the sake of wearing it or because it looks nice. It’s about the music, not the shirt.’ No matter, the celebrities of today continue on their bold adventures into the world of fashion design.
I suppose in attempting to fathom what exactly it is that motivates these stars to go forth and create their own lines, one can look to Liam Gallagher of Oasis who started his own collection, ‘Pretty Green’, in 2005, for guidance:
‘Clothes and music are my passion. I’m not doing it to rip anyone off and I’m not doing it for the money either. I’m doing it ‘cause there’s a lack of stuff out there of the things I would wear.’
Apparently there’s a lack of plain t-shirts and oddly shaped trench-like coats. It would also appear that £50 sterling for one of these t-shirts is not ripping anyone off, especially not when you could go to somewhere like Pennys and get an almost identical tee for about €5.
Could it be that Caleb, Jared, Nathan and Matthew were merely responding to a dearth of flannel shirts and jeans by creating S2A X KOL? As much as one may wish to answer in the affirmative, the wide availability of these types of garments across the globe is irrefutable. Furthermore, if they were responding to an emergency crisis, they would not even consider charging nearly €100 for a black belt!
Bono and Ali Hewson deserve a mention too. They, with the help of the denim label ‘Rogan’ embarked on the project that is ‘Edun’, a line of men and women’s wear made entirely from organic materials. This line is pretty laid-back and casual. Granted that materials such as organic cotton are used and that it aims to promote a sustainable social alternative in cotton producing countries, it’s still quite pricey.
If celebrities are so uninterested in making money, why then is Edun a profit-making company? Why doesn’t all the money go back into the communities which are being helped? Or better still, why don’t they lower the prices, thus encouraging more people to buy organic cotton which would in turn help these communities even more? Or make use of ethical t-shirt suppliers similar to GB Labels? Just a thought…
There are countless others who have ventured on similar quests for world domination. In 1998 Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs launched the ‘Sean John’ line and the following year, Jay-Z created ‘Rocawear’. Soon after ‘William Rast’ was founded by Justin Timberlake and childhood friend Trace Ayala. Then there are the more infamous singer/actor-turned-designers too, such as Gwen Stefani, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez.
I think it’s somewhat incontrovertible that there must be some element of greed in these audacious undertakings. If not, there would be no need for the celebrity lines to be so absurdly expensive. Furthermore, surely power is an integral part of it. Not necessarily power in the sense of control, rather some kind of need to create bigger and greater empires than those of their peers. Of course, I’ll never be able to get inside the minds of any of the Followills or Liam Gallagher or any other celebrity at that, so my musings are as good as the next person’s I guess!
