This is the principle of communicating vessels: the V. I. P. tear off the clothes of creators, while they themselves reinterpret and play with the looks of the icons of the moment. The people-mania falls on the planet fashion, but who inspires who?
Women's magazines, reality shows, and advertising campaigns: stars are everywhere. Their private life but also their wardrobe is dissected in the press and blogs. Distracting, people-mania turns fashion into a professional asset for some actresses, confirmed or in the making. Those who have a fashion instinct - and often a good stylist - are the big winners of this new collective obsession. Essentially Anglo-Saxon - the French star is reluctant to take out her panoply of fashion to get down the trash - in phase with the street, these personalities lookers, machine gunned by the paparazzi are now models not only for the general public, but also for the creators who, more and more, take inspiration from their silhouette. "Their influence is real, says Jean-Jacques Picart, fashion consultant. This is the same influence that we speculate on when we take them for an advertising campaign. You can, for example, launch a collection inspired by Beyoncé imagining to please those who love the singer. It makes it possible to reach many people, and the Internet increases the scope of the phenomenon. "
Mirror, my beautiful mirror
At Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld is happy to surround himself with young English and rebellious singers. The attitude, the bad spirit and the look of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen seduced the great Karl. For the Chanel Paris-London fashion show, models wore Amy's famous sauerkraut.
As for Lily's smoky eye and her unique way of wearing casual outfits, mix of designers and vintage, there are echoes in some collections, especially this summer. DSquared2's homage to Los Angeles starlets is less subtle. This Canadian designer duo transformed their winter 2010 show into a California street scene. Starbucks in hand, black glasses, neogrunge look ... clones of Lindsay Lohan, Mary-Kate Olsen and co marched before the seraglio of international fashion. Sometimes the reference people follow business logic. Victoria Beckham, image of Armani lingerie, inspired the brown and ultra-short cuts sported by all the mannequins’ house, while his taste for fitted tailors is reflected in some silhouettes of the latest Armani Privé show couture. In this star-fiction, the boundaries between fashion and people are increasingly blurred.
Business Stars, Stars Business
By dint of frequenting the creators, stars are also launching into fashion. Famous for her original look, mix of vintage, designer pieces and cheap finds, Kate Moss launched in 2007 her collection for Topshop, English giant of trendy fashion at low prices. Inspired by the wardrobe of the top, this clone cloakroom shuffles little more cards. It is the same problem for Victoria Beckham, who launched last winter a collection of dresses inspired by her look. At the time, some critics suspected the creator Roland Mouret - whose style Victoria loves the style - to be the occult author of this collection. Interested, and dresses are now worn by other stars, like Elle Macpherson. The mystery of "who inspires who? A top-ranked runner and old-school sneaker, rapper Kanye West has sparked Vuitton's interest. He signs this season a collection of sneakers with the monogram mark.
Towards a new cast
Ubiquitous, the people-fashion duo is not likely to cause a general overdose? "We arrive at the beginning of the end, confirms Jean-Jacques Picart. The excesses, the gratuitousness and the artifice of certain situations raise many questions as to the legitimacy of the phenomenon. And the crisis has increased this vigilance. But the people will not disappear from the fashion landscape. Even if its importance will diminish in favor of the product, it is especially its role which will evolve. "We will go towards more sincerity, continues Jean-Jacques Picart, to get closer to relationships like those of Audrey Hepburn with Hubert de Givenchy, Catherine Deneuve with Yves Saint Laurent. In this category, Dita von Teese's friendship with John Galliano or Christian Louboutin's footwear can already be tidied up. In their interplay of mutual influences, a shared culture and tastes play a more important role than the show-business trick. Examples of this kind should multiply. The stars concerned will also change category. "Some artists - Jude Law, Nicole Kidman ... - have paved the way for a new generation of muses, which inspire more by the values they embody than by their power of seduction," concludes Jean-Jacques Picart.
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