Jessica Simpson
Lester Cohen/WireImage
Take, for instance, how she shifted the look of a JS knit top that had the slogan "Chicken or fish?" on it, the Wall Street Journal reports. (Simpson, 24, once famously got confused about the core product of Chicken of the Sea tuna on her Newlyweds show.)
Simpson took one look at the sample garment in the Los Angeles showroom and suggested, "Instead of words, maybe you could show a chicken and a fish with a question mark in between them?"
She also vetoed a "cheesy" – Simpson's word – pair of jeans that featured the titles of her songs embroidered on the inner waistband.
Simpson, who reportedly has been guaranteed first-year royalty payments of $4.5 million minimum, is ready to take her place among celebrities succeeding in the fashion world. Topping the list, says the Journal, are Gwen Stefani, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Sean Combs, Nelly and Jennifer Lopez – whose cosmetics and fashions, launched in 2002, now generate about $200 million in sales per year.
What will distinguish Simpson's label will be $49 embroidered low-rise jeans and assorted frilly tops. Macy's will feature the line in 50 of its stores come fall.
A second label, called "Princy" (Simpson's nickname as a girl), will feature items priced slightly more, such as jeans for $69. Some 600 specialty and department stores, such as Dillard's, will offer that line.
As for what makes her an expert, Simpson says: "Even though we were poor, I grew up loving clothes." These days, she adds, "all my friends come over so I can help them get dressed."
The parent company of Simpson's labels, Tarrant, also has another star rollout due this autumn: Beyonce's House of Deron sportswear collection, named for her dressmaker grandmother and designed in part by her mother, Tina Knowles.
Asked how Simpson's and Beyonce's lines will differ, one of Tarrant's owners, Gerard Guez, tells the Journal: "We get the red states with Jessica and the blue states with Beyonce."
