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The New York Times has a great piece today about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s emergence as serious designers. It talks about the expansion of the Row (MK and Ashley are traveling to Tokyo this week to celebrate the opening of a store there!), it’s unlikely success in the midst of a recession and how they’ve made a celebrity line work in an industry that’s saturated with them.
Both Elizabeth and James and the Row are expected to grow rapidly in the coming year. This success both perplexes and astonishes industry experts, but everyone from buyers to critics to other designers have immense respect for what Mary-Kate and Ashley have done. They’ve built not one, but two successful clothing lines that are bolstered by their celebrity name without detracting customers who aren’t fans of the girls.
“The customer who buys the clothes almost never knows we’re involved,” Ashley said.
Store owners concur. “I don’t think anybody really cares that it’s Mary-Kate and Ashley’s collection,” Julie Gilhart of Barneys New York said. “They’re buying it because they like it.”
The article is interesting because it truly addresses Mary-Kate and Ashley for what they are today – designers and businesswomen. We also learn Mary-Kate hates tank tops! I never knew that!
You can read the entire article here.
Image: Newscom
