From Dannii Minogue to the Kardashians, celebrities from all walks of life seem to have their own fashion lines at the moment.

From Dannii Minogue to the Kardashians, celebrities from all walks of life seem to have their own fashion lines at the moment. When Rihanna’s collection for River Island launched at its Oxford Circus store earlier this week, fans reportedly turned up in the middle of the night to sneak an early peek.

River Island has claimed that appointing Rihanna as a designer for a clothing collection has more ‘gravitas’ than simply having her model its outfits, since Rihanna wants to be taken seriously as a designer. Victoria Beckham, too, is keen to make a name for herself in the fashion circuit, and has already won critical appraisal for her ‘clean cut tailoring, retro prints and attention to detail’.

The birth of this celebrity-led fashion movement goes all the way back to the partnership between Topshop and Kate Moss back in 2007. Although collaborations like these have proven to be successful in many cases, fashion industry and marketing experts have warned that A-list credentials are not always a sure-fire strategy for long-term brand success.

For example, reviews of Rihanna’s appearance at London Fashion Week were quick to point out that the Rihanna label doesn’t really add any extra fashion content, but rather personality and attitude. So is celebrity-inspired fashion really just a gimmick to create instant buzz? Sure, celebrities may have easy access to the media and the resources they need to get attention very quickly but will that be enough to provide a long-term solution for struggling UK retailers?

While it’s easy to see the appeal of using celebrity to boost sales in the short-term, this approach may actually be masking the fact that nothing very exciting is happening in high street fashion at the moment. Is it possible that all of these celebrity endorsements are an attempt to make up for a dearth of creativity and lack of fresh ideas in the fashion subsector more generally?

Rather than promoting a clothing line with ‘celebrity’ names like Gemma Collins and Tulisa Contostavlos (the TOWIE star and The X Factor judge, respectively, for anyone not in the know), retailers may be better off focusing on the design trends, colours and fabrics that young people really want. This level of customer insight is there for the taking right now but retailers will need to take the time to form a real connection with their customers first.

To me, it seems like there is a massive void to be filled here and a great opportunity to engage with the UK’s strong youth culture by creating a brand identity that extends beyond the (fleeting) cult of celebrity. So rather than spending millions of pounds on celebrity endorsements and merchandising deals, maybe retailers should be investing this money on youth design competitions and other more sustainable initiatives that will help them tap into this under-served market for the long-term.

  • Dan Coen, director, Zolfo Cooper