Philip Lim speaks Out On Celebrity Designers

A few days ago, I wrote an article on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's new adventures in designing, and lamented how celebrities have no real right to be designing. In a sense, they're polluting the design pool with crappy designs and no expertise, and making it harder for actual designers to make their way in the ever more competitive fashion industry. And I'm not the only one who feels this way - far from it - as today's New York Times proves. There is a growing frustration, NYT writer Eric Wilson says, among designers who are forced to compete with celebrities who know hardly a thing about true design. Philip Lim, a personal favorite designer of mine and who was honored at the CFDA Awards Monday, is interviewed in the article and explains his frustration with celebrities, who capitalize on their fame and claim to be "designers," while true designers like Philip Lim have worked extremely hard for years before making it big. Kudos to Philip Lim, I wholeheartedly agree with him. Celebrities are not designers.

Check out Wilson's article, "Stealing the Scene Along with the Store," here.

Picture: Philip Lim
Photo Credit: New York Times