California Apparel News

Kanye West, Rolling Stones' Ron Wood and GN'R's DJ Ashba Join Fashion’s Growing List of Entrepreneurial Tastemakers

The extensive list of music artists turned fashion designers is growing, with a number of pop stars recently collaborating with design houses or announcing plans to soon be featured on racks alongside established designers like Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Last week, Kanye West and French design house M/M (Paris) debuted a series of five wildly colorful silk scarves featuring designs based on the cover art of the multi-platinum rapper's 2010 album My Beautiful Dark and Twisted Fantasy, which was released with five alternate covers with original artwork by George Condo. Limited to 100 and retailing for around $350 apiece, the Power (pictured below, top left), Phoenix, Ballerina, Face and Priest (pictured above) scarves are being sold exclusively at Paris' Collette boutique and via M/M's website.

It was also announced last week via the U.K.'s The Sun tabloid newspaper that Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, who is also an accomplished painter, is planning to launch a denim clothing line with Tommy Hilfiger.

Brit rocker Pete Doherty of the Libertines and Babyshambles collaborated on a line of T-shirts for Manchester hipster brand Gio-Goi in 2007 (right) and is now collaborating with French brand The Kooples on a unisex apparel line. Due to hit racks in October at The Kooples' boutiques in Paris, the collection will feature Doherty's paintings and illustrations on T-shirts, jackets and coats.

Blondie's Debbie Harry pondered retirement during a recent interview with Britain's Attitude magazine and said, "I know that I can't front a band forever, but I would certainly like to keep writing or start a clothing business."

Legendary Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler harbors similar ambitions to Harry. "If I'm going to wear these clothes I collected for the last 40 years, I want my own f-- line," the trendsetting rocker tells People in last week's cover story.

And fellow rocker DJ Ashba, who is Guns N' Roses' current guitarist, just launched an apparel collection via his website, Ashba Swag, hawking edgy, one-of-a-kind and handmade rock apparel (above, top right photo). The line is inspired by Ashba's stage outfits, which were designed by Cody Varona, his partner in the fashion venture.

These burgeoning couture designers and label owners are in good company, with a number of their musical colleagues having already made successful strides within the fashion industry. Every pop star from Mandy Moore and Eve to Jennifer Lopez and Nelly has tried a hand at fashion design, with varying degrees of success while other superstars continue to balance wildly successful dual careers in music and fashion, such as Diddy and his Sean John line and Madonna and her Material Girl collection, which are both sold exclusively at Macy's. Gwen Stefani proved to be as successful a designer as she is a singer-songwriter with her L.A.M.B. and Harajuki Lovers lines. Music mogul Jay-Z launched yet another entrepreneurial empire in 1999 with Rocawear. Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum (pictured below) sells his Sorum Noce line at his Melrose boutique of the same name. Incubus' Brandon Boyd recently collaborated with Hurley to design a series of eco-friendly T-shirts; Linkin Park's multi-talented Mike Shinoda recently designed benefit T-shirts (above, lower left photo) supporting victims of March's earthquake in Japan that are available via the L.A. band's website; Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx and his business partner Kelly Gray (whose parents founded St. John) debuted new women's and men's fashions (above, lower right photo) from their Royal Underground line at Neimen Marcus at Newport Beach's Fashion Island last month; and Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, who launched a denim line in 2006 and eventually branched out, recently unveiling her Autumn/Winter 2011 full line of couture, a collaboration with Christian Louboutin, at NYC's Fashion Week. Like Beckham, Jessica Simpson’s fashion career tends to outshine her pop stardom, with the singer's successful and ever-increasing various signature collections offering everything from apparel and handbags to intimates and accessories, along with her obligatory celebrity fragrances.

It looks like entrepreneurial pop stars have found a great way to creatively combat the quickly changing music business while still maintaining a rock star lifestyle, and that can only mean one thing: Fashion is about to rock harder than it ever has. And to that we hold up our Bic lighters and await the next encore.