Apparently, Madonna will design a fashion range for H&M. The ‘M by Madonna’ range, we’re told, will be released in March 2007.
The question is: how many people actually want to look like Madonna? And we’re not talking Madonna in her hey-day, when she somehow managed to make dark eyebrows and bleached hair look fashion forward. We’re talking about Madonna today. In recent times we’ve seen her all too often in tracksuit pants, doing freaky acrobatics in high-cut leotards and taking on the world one orphan at a time with those veiny Rocky-esque bicepts. Although the descriptions of Madonna as a style chameleon and successful cultural phenomenon can hardly be refuted, the question is more of her relevance to fashion today. Do the younger generations, who are the target audience of stores like H&M, want to dress like Madonna?
H&M have had some highly successful collaborations in the past with popular and well-regarded fashion designers. It would seem that Kate Moss being picked up by TopShop may just have rival retailers clambering for their own celebrity-named lines in response.
Move over Stella McCartney – that’s what fashion’s all about.
