Ashley Olsen - a Legit fashion designer?
Before you roll your eyes, take a deeper look into the career path of Ashley Olsen. Not just another celebrity trying to make bank of her famous name, or “creatively” branding her name/celebrity image into a bottle of perfume. No, not Ashley. Whether it be whispering alterations to her design team or conducting a corporate meeting in a pencil skirt, pumps, and leather jacket - this “it” girl is ready to get down and dirty in the fashion industry.Recently launching her new collection, named ” Elizabeth and James”, after her two low profile siblings. Her designs are formed off of a genuine interest in fashion and pure talent. Journalist at Marie Claire says, ” I figured Ashley for a Michael Jackson-style cautionary tale. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Her aesthetic is genuine and formidable - she is the type who would fashion a dinner napkin into something worthy of couture in like nine seconds!” ( www.marieclaire.com).
As a fashion student graduate from top fashion school FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) I could not be more proud when I was reading the Ashley Olsen article in Marie Claire, ” Ashley Olsen the Coolest Girl in the World” because I saw Olsen using fashion terminology (yes, it is its own language) such as textile terms (warp, stretch, give, pill). They sound like ordinary words but in the fashion world, they mean something totally different.
Olsen conducts her assembly part of work in a factory. Like any factory, it is filled with sewing machines, bolts of fabric, pins, needles and dress forms. Hands on, she tweaks, tucks, pins, and cuts the fabric, critique-ing its sillouette upon the dress form. Whispered orders to an assistant seamstress, Olsen says,” Increase the shoulder seam 3/4. It has to be tight enough so that her crack doesn’t show when she bends down” ( www.marieclaire.com). She also conducts her own meetings in her corporate office based in NY.
With her impressive use of fashion terminology, I cannot help but wonder if she is majoring in fashion design at NYU - she has to, unless she has done all this research on her own. And as far as her famous name being used as a crutch to launch her own fashion line, I beg to differ.
Yes, being famous has an advantage. It is easier to get press, your name is already known ,etc. But like everything, where there is good there also is bad. And I believe it would be more difficult to break into the fashion industry with a socialite/actress/celeb name because people already have their preconceived notions of you and question your credibility. So whether you are a normal norma or an Olsen Twin, either way you have your work cut out for you - something to prove.
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