Startling music article - Gwen Stefani On the Connection Between Music and Fashion

Gwen Stefani On the Connection Between Music and Fashion

By Alexandra Cheney

Rock star and fashion designer Gwen Stefani didn’t make it to any other fashion shows, she was so busy preparing for her own L.A.M.B. show last night, the penultimate of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Speakeasy caught up with the designer hours before to talk about the connection between her music and her fashion, her family and what’s next.

The Wall Street Journal: You founded L.A.M.B in 2003. Was it an outgrowth of your music?

For years people were asking me about doing something. When I started it wasn’t something that a lot of people did. Now it feels like everyone, they do a record and they do something else. I would think, “why would I do something else? I do music.” But I don’t know, it just kept coming to me. It just kind of evolved like everything in my life. I remember sitting at the table at my house in London and just saying I don’t really know what I’m doing. But what really helped it and what really gave me confidence was when Le Sports Sac asked me to be a guest designer. When they said “designer” that really stroked my ego a lot.

Did you not see yourself doing music forever?

People would ask me “10 years from now what are you going to do?” and that was 10 years ago and I thought that I would have children and I knew I needed to do something creative outside of just being a mom and being a designer makes me feel worthy of being alive. Now it’s chaos. I thought I would sew in my house but it’s so much work to do this line.

Did the shift in the music industry and economy impact the evolution from your collaboration to your own line?

I have to be honest with you, when I did music I never thought I’d have that life. I was successful with music so I didn’t have to worry about that, it was purely a creative thing. I didn’t really know what this would end up being. I’ve still got a long way to go, it’s still in the baby stages.

Do you feel like the fashion community has accepted you?

It’s kind of like I’m in my own bubble of me. I have my kids. I have my music. I have meetings, and I have a lot of fun doing it. When I started, I thought for sure I would be blacklisted like “what does she think she’s doing?” but everyone has been super supportive. And that’s what builds your confidence and what inspires you to keep going. But I do have a little bit of a sewing background and since I was little I made all of my costumes. And I wouldn’t consider myself an equal with any of those “designers.” I’m in my own thing.

How do you keep L.A.M.B. fresh?

We’re still learning how to do it. But it’s a really different kind of way than most designers because I’m not doing it full-time everyday. The more I can put in, the better it gets. But we start with inspiration days and then we have meetings and the team that I’m working with now, this is only our 4^th collection with them, which is so much better but we are still getting to know each other.

Is there new music on the horizon? What are you up to after this collection is complete?

We’ve been doing a record all year; 10 songs have been recorded. When this is done I’ll go probably write a few more songs. I don’t know when it’ll come out, but you never know what can happen. I sang on three of them. One of them I might not re-sing. My band takes a weird process as well. It takes so long. And all of them just had babies, so it’ll be a while.