celebrity fashion lines

Justin Timberlake's William Rast Line To Be Sold At Target

William Rast, the clothing line founded by Justin Timberlake and Trace Ayala is the latest to go the Target route. A limited edition of apparel for men and women will launch in December at most Target stores nationwide and will also be sold online. The collection will only be available from December 19 to January 22, 2011.

The brand was first dreamed up by Timberlake and Ayala in 2005 as a new denim label. The line launched the following year and has since expanded into leather jackets, outerwear, wovens and knits. The brand is sold in department stores including Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales as well as several William Rast retail stores.

Tags: celebrity fashion lines, justin timberlake, Target, Target Corp., Trace Ayala, william rast

The Fashion Statement: More Celebrity Hookups Good or Bad?

by Kristin Young (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Big Givers, Celebrity Design, The Fashion Statement

Celebrities have no intention of staying away from fashion, even with all the bad press lately (see last season's disastrous Lohan/Ungaro mash up). Last week Madonna teamed up with Iconix Brand Group to produce a tween line inspired by her daughter Lourdes. Early this week, she struck another deal with Dolce & Gabbana to produce a line of eyewear called MDG. Amy Winehouse hooked up with Fred Perry for a line scheduled to hit stores in the fall. And then there is Sarah Jessica Parker and Halston and a myriad of Olympic stars lending their now recognizable names to brands.

Since the days of Jaclyn Smith for Kmart in the '80s and Kathy Lee Gifford for Wal-Mart in the 90s, celebrities have been ubiquitous in the fashion field. It's not hard to guess what their primary motivator is. A brand generally spends loads of money for the privilege of using a household name.

But does it do anything for a brand? Based on some marketing studies I found online, the jury is out on that one. One guy called it the lazy man's brand building. Another said it's very hard for the consumer to keep track of what celebrity is with whom and harder still to trust a brand just from a celebrity endorsement alone. And if a celeb is hooked up with lots of different brands, each individual brand could really suffer.

Tags: amy winehouse, AmyWinehouse, celebrity endorsement, celebrity endorsement deals, celebrity endorsements, Celebrity fashion designers, celebrity fashion lines, Lourdes, Madonna, Tiger Woods, TigerWoods