Back
in the day a platinum record would get
an artist a Grammy, a spot in heavy rotation
or even a commercial on TV. Now in days
if an artist scores a platinum record
they get their own clothing line. The
question is should we take these clothing
lines seriously and are they hurting the
fashion industry. We can accept clothing
lines from artists such as P. Diddy, Jay-Z,
and Master P, but these guys are known
for being good businessmen as much being
success artists. Therefore, these three
artists are granted amnesty in this article.
However, there are many other artists
who do not seem to be very business savvy
that are bringing out clothing lines solely
on the basis that they have platinum records.
Most of these artists do not have any
creative control over these clothing lines.
Most of these artists are being used for
their name and not their knowledge of
fashion. Can anyone be convinced that
Bow Wow knows anything about the fashion
industry? Nope! But guess what? He has
a clothing line coming out this fall.
It does not stop with Bow Wow. We see
clothing lines from artists such as Eve,
50 cent, Nelly and a host of others. The
one thing that these artists have in common
is that they all enjoy platinum success.

Nelly Band-Aids Coming
to a department store near you!
Now this is by no means
a playa hatin’ session because if
I was an artist and was given the opportunity
to have my own clothing line, I would
do it. The purpose of this article is
not to bash these artists but to pose
the following questions:
- Should we take these clothing line
seriously?
- Do the artists coming out with these
clothing lines hurt or help the fashion
industry? (From a creative aspect, not
dollars)
When I pose the question, “Should
we take these clothing line seriously?”
what I am asking is, will the clothing
lines last or will they disappear as soon
as the artist’s popularity runs
out?
Most artist today do not have staying
power in the music industry so how can
we expect their clothing lines to stay
around in the fashion industry? Also,
most of these artists have no creative
control over their music so how can we
be sure that they have any creative control
over their clothing lines? They may get
to see the cloths before they hit stores
but I doubt if they had a significant
role in the development process. I might
be wrong in some cases, but I have a feeling
that I am right in most.
The second question posed is rather or
not this trend hurts or helps the fashion
industry. That is meant by that question
is, are designers and the industry as
a whole benefiting from this recent trend
or is it causing problems? Are those who
became designers the traditional way,
who do not benefit from selling millions
of CD’s, hurt or helped by this
trend? Does this trend cause saturation
in the industry?
I am not saying that this article answers
all these questions. What it does is raise
the issue and encourages dialog in regards
to the issue. Believe me, I’ve talked
to a lot of people in fashion about this
very issue and what I found is that a
lot of them have a lot to say about this
topic.
As an up and coming designer myself,
I believe it will be more difficult to
for me and others like me to come out
with clothing lines due to this recent
trend. I also believe it will be if not
already, very saturated. However, non-music
designers like myself will be forced to
step our game up. If we don’t come
out with something fresh and original,
we will not get noticed. We don’t
benefit from the exposure that a platinum
CD provides. So to all aspiring designers,
I say this, unless you plan on dropping
a platinum CD soon, you need to step your
game up and bring the fire or get lost
in the crowd!
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