Celebrity designers

Love your reality/modeling/singing/(fill in your fave genre here) stars? Want to small as good as you imagine they do? Then get ready to head to the stores sometime soon for the newest celebrity fragrance, Bikini Babe, by Keeping Up with the Kardashians' resident celebutante, Kim Kardashian. Few details were available at press time, except for this and this.

Also, this just in: Although not a new designer in the scent world, Anna Sui will launch her newest fragrance, "Rock Me!" this fall. Read more here. The ads are photographed by Stephen Meisel.

A celebrity launching a fashion line? It seems this is one trend that will never end.

There it was earlier this week, the big bulletin that Katie Holmes is hooking up with her stylist Jeanne Yang to produce Holmes & Yang, a women's line slated to debut at the Maxfield boutique in Los Angeles this fall.

The list of celebs-cum-designers must be a mile long now: Jessica Simpson, Gwen Stefani, Sarah Jessica Parker, Justin Timberlake, Milla Jovovich, Sienna Miller, Mary Kate and Ashley Oslen, Chloë Sevigny, Pamela Anderson, Victoria Beckham, Gwen Stefani, Beyoncé, Fergie and, of course, Paris Hilton just to rattle off a few.

Celebrities with fashion labels is so commonplace (even Ryan Seacrest went there), Perez Hilton recently started www.cocoperez.com to document all the goings-on of the modern day deities turned taste makers.

The whole celebrity/fashion setup can't help but reek of making-a-buck. Very few of the glitterati, if even one, will ever pick up a needle and thread. We all know how challenging it is to make a garment (thank you, Project Runway). And then there's that unexplainable sixth sense fashion designers seem to have. Stylists exist because celebrities are more often than not a fashion hazard waiting to happen. Demi Moore's biker shorts at the Oscars, anyone? A good stylist will steer a celeb away from a career-debilitating swan dress. So why should anyone trust good taste to the latter?

"I can honestly say I'm not a big fan of celebrities as clothing designers," says celebrity stylist Monica Schweiger. "I mean in most cases, the celebrity designer more than likely has no actual design training and may not even have a unique style opinion-other than their stylist. It's kind of like taking the celebrity poster girl ad concept one step further-instead of putting the face on the ads lets just put their name on the brand."

Would you pay between $50 and $200 for a headband? Mischa Barton is betting (hoping?) you will! The actress has teamed up with handbag and jewelry designer Stacey Lapidus to launch a collection of 10 headbands in varying styles. Now, here at Luxist we love the expensive, exquisite accessory. But I feel compelled to question whether a headband -- at least those in this collection -- could possibly be worth this high of an asking price. You decide. See the gallery for a few styles.

Lately there are so many celebrities designing apparel, shoes, wine, fragrances, and so on, it's hard to keep up. Can't read all the tabloids and style rags? We're here to help.

Here are a few celeb designers we've covered recently: Gwyneth Paltrow - apparel; Fergie - shoes; Charlie Sheen - shirts; Scott Weiland - apparel; Sting - wine; and Jason Timberlake - tequila.

And here are the newest I could find, though some have been around year or so: Sofia Coppola - Louis Vuitton clutches and small purses; David Arquette and Ben Harper - Propr apparel for Kitson (said to be eco-friendly); Lauren Bush - Lauren Pierce apparel; Paris Hilton - rumored to have a sunglass line be in the works, already has a shoe line; Kate Moss - apparel for UK store Topshop (a store opened in Soho recently to a crazed crowd); Nicole Richie - rumored to have a maternity line in the works, already has House of Harlow 1960 jewelry; Kimora Lee Simmons - Fabulosity apparel for JCPenney; Tori Spelling - Little Maven by Tori Spelling children's clothing; Taylor Swift - L.E.I. sundresses for Walmart; Kanye West and Rihanna - inked a fragrance deal with Jay-Z's licensing company, Kanye and Rihanna each will have their own scent; more Kanye - Nike Air Yeezy sneakers; "Bachelorette" Trista Sutter - Trista Baby diaper bags; and Snoop Dogg -- Rich & Infamous apparel.

I must stop now or risk link overkill (too late, maybe?). If you know of other new celebrity designers Luxist readers might want to check out, please share in the comments section.

An e-mail popped up in my inbox the other day with the subject "Introducing FergieShoes.com." I figured it was spam, but always on the lookout for new shoes, I checked it out. Turns out it's legit. Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie is helming her own footwear line. (She's not the first singer to so so -- Carlos Santana and Jessica Simpson have lines too.)

FergieShoes.com has three kinds of styles: Kickin' Back, Paparazzi Ready, and Glitterati (which only had one style, but in seven colors). I saw lots of gladiator sandals, wedges and high heels that I can only see Tina Turner being able to navigate (on stage or off). Prices range from $71 - $131. See a few examples in the gallery.

Actress Zooey Deschanel joins the ranks of celebrity designers with a contribution to the Oliver Peoples line of eyewear. Available in five colors, as optical eyewear or a sunglass, the "Zooey" is hand-crafted of plastic in beveled contours and features a vintage-inspired, custom Oliver Peoples metal plaque with ridged detailing at the end pieces. The CR-39 lenses are equipped with a one-of-a-kind breath logo in the shape of Deschanel's kissing lips, an element also featured on the cocktail napkin-esque AR cloth included. Available for presale online through March 15 and expected to hit stores in April; $415.

For every celebrity who closes down a clothing line, there's one just starting up. Charlie Sheen is the next celebrity to launch a line, after Scott Weiland, that is. Sheen's line of short-sleeved, button-up shirts, dubbed Da Vinci Collection by Charlie Sheen, aims to emulate retro casual shirts inspired by 1950s rockabilly culture. The shirts feature agoya shell buttons, retro patterns and contrasting color combos. They're set to go on sale in June at GlobalRebels.com. Sheen hopes to eventually sell them in major department stores as well. $59 - $79

Check out the New York Daily News's gallery of celebrities who wear their own lines: "Look! I wear my designs, too!"

Busy socialite (and possible Hugh Grant ex -- the jury's still out) Jemima Khan has been named as Parisian label Azzaro's latest guest designer, creating a collection of ready-to-wear and accessories that will be presented at its showroom during the early July couture shows, according to WWD. Khan was named by Vogue in December as the epitome of modern glamour and is just one of the latest group of A-listers joining the design studio: young socialista Eugenie Niarchos collaborated with Azzaro designer Vanessa Seward on an accessories collection last year, and Janet Jackson announced at a recent Versace menswear show that she is working on a lingerie line.

[Via Vogue.com UK]