05/09/2009 09:46FT.com / Style - Showbiz moguls target the world of style

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Showbiz moguls target the world of styleBy Lucie GreenePublished: September 5 2009 01:24 | Last updated: September 5 2009 01:24

Attending the 2008 Paris Fashion Week (from left) are Marc Almond, Dita Von Teese, ClaudiaSchiffer, Victoria Beckham and Simon Fuller

EDITOR’S CHOICEMore from Style - Nov-24

This week pop culture maestro Simon Fuller, the man who created the Spice Girls and theAmerican Idol format, launched his new venture, Fashionair, an online fashion-meets-entertainment platform. It is yet another signal that some of the hottest action in the style worldis occurring off the catwalk. As media moguls set their sights on fashion domination, theindustry as we know it is poised for change.

The launch of Fashionair follows the announcement last month of Fuller’s acquisition of a 51-per cent stake in Storm Model Management, the agency that represents Kate Moss, EvaHerzigova, Lily Cole and Jourdan Dunn. More importantly, it signals Fuller’s plans to createjoint platforms for modelling, fashion and celebrity talent.

Fuller’s former partner and rival Simon Cowell is loathe to be left behind: he has teamed upwith Topshop/Arcardia owner Sir Philip Green, and both have procured the support of KateMoss, to plan a “multi-billion-dollar” international entertainment group with merchandise andfashion retail arms (not too dissimilar, say, to Disney).

Then there’s movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who produces the TV show Project Runway andhas made major forays into the fashion world with investments in Marchesa (the designer labelrun by his wife Georgina Chapman) and Halston .

Finally, last March the William Morris entertainment agency announced a partnership withformer IMG executive Massimo Redaelli’s new talent, media and events company, PrimaManagement, to expand into fashion with a flurry of projects that include endorsements,sponsorships, corporate consulting, media and events, such as the Rio Summer and AspenFashion Weeks.

Fashion and entertainment combined may be a new concept, but it’s not a very surprising one.As Fuller told fashion industry journal Women’s Wear Daily in March, he believes fashion iscurrently the hotbed of pop culture: “I want to be surrounded by this creative energy as I amthinking about new forms of entertainment, and looking at how formats and ideas impact intothe mass market.”

After all, fashion itself has become amedium for mass entertainment. No longeran insider subject, it is followed by large,savvy audiences. MTV’s reality show TheCity, featuring Diane Von Furstenberg’sHQ, has audience figures of an estimated1.6m-plus; its predecessor, The Hills, whichat one point counted 4.6m viewers,launched fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone,

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05/09/2009 09:46FT.com / Style - Showbiz moguls target the world of style

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Harvey Weinstein and wife Georgina Chapman

founder of fashion publicity house People’sRevolution, into celebrity-dom – she isfilming her own reality series with Bravonetwork.

“Until recently the entertainment mediasector has been very backward in exploitingits brands,” says Rita Clifton, director atbrand consultancy Interbrand. “They’vebeen behind the curve in realising that itisn’t just about key rings and T-shirts;there’s a real opportunity to create strongfashion brands as an extension of powerfulmedia brands. Simon Fuller was one of thefirst to understand this.”

Case in point: Victoria Beckham, currently apart of Fuller’s 19 Entertainment stable, andher dVb by Victoria Beckham line, which

has helped rebrand her from footballer’s wife to fashion icon. Her association with luminariesMarc Jacobs and Giorgio Armani (she has appeared in both designers’ advertising campaigns)has elevated her credibility, while her celebrity brand status has ensured vast reach, which willbroaden with her reported £3m signing to TV show American Idol as judge. (Wardrobe, nodoubt, based entirely on her own collection.)

Now Fuller hopes Fashionair will drive user traffic to more than 500 e-tailers worldwide, with apotential audience of 22m, creating lucrative retail and advertising opportunities. After all,merchandise such as toys, accessories, DVDs and CDs from Hannah Montana and HighSchool Musical, the popular Disney franchises, raked in a reported $2.7bn in retail sales for2008, and when MTV launched a fashion line by Lauren Conrad, star of The Hills, last year, itgenerated $5m-$10m in annual revenue and was stocked in 250 stores across the US.

In the same gold-plated vein, last month celebrity blogger Perez Hilton launched Coco Perez,a new fashion blog that involves a mix of red-carpet style “critiques”, fashion news, commentsand exclusive video releases.

“It was a natural progression for me,” says Hilton. “The majority of my readers are female andin their twenties. They love celebrity, but what else do they love? Fashion. My main blog has10m hits per day; if one-tenth of that transfers to Coco Perez, then I’ll be blowing mycompetitors out of the water.”

As Nina Ferguson, director of Inca Productions, an agency that connects brands with designersand celebrities for sponsorship, says: “Fashion has been demystified. It’s no longer niche, it’spart of mass culture. It’s come to the fore in entertainment because the main consumer groupsare women. Everyone from technology brands to mobile phone companies is trying to accessthe female audience through fashion. Women are the ones driving consumer spending; they’resavvy, sophisticated, and fashion is the perfect way to reach them.”

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Details

www.19entertainment.comwww.stormmodels.comwww.arcadiagroup.co.ukwww.wma.comwww.seenonmtv.comwww.fashionair.comwww.victoriabeckham.comwww.cocoperez.comwww.peoplesrevolution.comwww.incaproductions.co.uk

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SUPERMODEL STYLE: From Kate Moss to Yasmin Le Bon

Can he do it again? Hot on the heels of Kate Moss’s 11thcollection for Topshop, Arcadia owner Sir Philip Green isintroducing YLB, a range designed for Wallis by the originalBritish 1980s supermodel Yasmin Le Bon (pictured). Therange is launched online next week, writes Beatrice Aidin.

But who is Le Bon these days, and what makes Greenthink women will want to buy clothes designed by her?

“She [Yasmin] is the perfect fit for Wallis,” Green says.“She looks great, she’s elegant and stylish.”

According to Alyn Horton of creative consultancy Alyn UK,who works with designers Christopher Kane and HenryHolland: “With the models’ collections, you are trading inthat person.”

Still, Le Bon is certainly not a designer, and as trained

05/09/2009 09:46FT.com / Style - Showbiz moguls target the world of style

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designer Hussein Chalayan said of Kate Moss’s collectionfor Topshop: “It’s kind of insulting to us [designers],because it’s like saying – and I don’t mean this personally– ‘I can sell more clothes off my name, off my brand, thanyou can, even though you’re a better designer.’ If I was acelebrity, I would honestly try to inspire people in anotherway.”

In response, Le Bon says: “There are plenty of people who are designers and haven’t beentrained. However, I bring to the table 26 years working in the business, so that’s a pretty goodapprenticeship.”

“It is a model’s business to sell clothes,” says David Letherbridge, chief executive ofTheNod.com, a celebritywatching website. “As a result, models have credibility when it comesto selling fashion.”

Alyn Horton adds: “Because of their job, models absorb knowledge and they soon know whatworks and what doesn’t work on a human body.”

Sir Philip Green also defends the idea: “I don’t think you have to be a designer – I’m not adesigner,” he says. “But I do think I know what people want to wear.”

Le Bon herself laughs off the pressure: “I’m trying not to think too much about it, otherwise Iwill be afraid, and won’t enjoy it,” she says.

One thing’s for sure: Green sees great potential in this particular fashion concept. “In my headI’ve got the idea of the perfect person for each of the [Arcadia] brands,” he says. When itcomes to models designing for the high street, lightning can strike not just twice, but multipletimes.

YLB for Wallis launches atwww.ylb4wallis.comon September 12 and in selected stores fromSeptember 15

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