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 Ever
since the days of Greta Garbo, the one true "diva"... fashion
designers have looked to celebrities for inspiration. Today’s
trend-setting designers are not really that different. Karl
Lagerfeld and Calvin Klein are fascinated with the likes of
Lindsay Lohan, Halle Berry has the starring role in Versace’s
spring/summer ad campaign and Marc Jacobs, who famously picks
among a variety of obscure muses from Lil’ Kim to Sofia Coppola,
has recently signed White Stripes drummer Meg White as the face
of his upcoming campaign. So what is all of the hub bub about?
Let's just say that as quickly as Janet Jackson's assistant can
purchase a large calorie-ridden croissant with an even larger
cup of tea at San Diego's Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (at 6:00 a.m.),
Drama Queen Style has become the hottest commodity to hit the
web since George Clooney actually began "blogging". “No matter
what designers say, they’re still inspired by the stars,” says
Danielle Orsino, the bold and innovative Creative Officer at
Drama Queen Style whose numerous clients have included a myriad
of stars from the world of motion pictures to the closed sets of
daytime television. “It’s still a celebrity world.” That might
be true, and stylist Amanda Reno, who works with Carmen Electra,
Virginia Madsen and Kristin Cavallari, says celebrities are the
first place designers go for inspiration. “Designers know how
important it is to get their clothes on these women. The
customers who shop at Barneys and Saks are looking to these
stars for inspiration for what they’re buying and wearing.” Are
stars today inspirational or influential?— "That’s the $10
million dollar question," continues Orsino, “Celebrities are
more important today because models aren’t as much of a factor
anymore,” she says. “(Celebrities are) influential because
anytime you can get a dress on a star, you get hundreds if not
thousands of inquiries about that particular dress. But
personally, I don’t find them to be inspirational.” Certainly,
sometimes there’s an obvious source of inspiration, such as Yves
Saint Laurent’s Mondrian-inspired dresses in the 1960s. But
designers can be inspired by anything— a movie, a book, art,
travel and sometimes just daily life. “When I’m in Europe, I
just sit in the cafes and watch people,” Orsino says. “The men
and women there look so remarkably effortless. A color will just
jump out at me. It can be subtle or it can be suggestive and
predatory, but when you envision that particular hue and it
eventually evolves into something more, a symphony of lines and
patterns... it really is an inspiring moment.”
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Fashion Editor