USA Today (Sept. 15th 2006)
Designer/mom hat fits Gwen Stefani to a T
Her clothing line is called L.A.M.B. But in the midst of Fashion Week madness, Gwen Stefani drops everything to tend to her own little lamb, who just woke up from a nap. “Hungry time,” coos Stefani, as she takes her groggy infant, Kingston, from his nanny's arms, where he's curled up in a cozy yellow blanket. Even at 3 months, Kingston sets fashion trends in a custom-made green-and- black L.A.M.B. T-shirt, with red-and-blue-striped pants and camouflage booties. The baby, a chubby-cheeked, brown-haired dead- ringer for his father, Gavin Rossdale, sucks on a pacifier as Stefani, who declined to be photographed with her son, whisks him away to nurse and change him. Once she's done feeding him, Stefani, making her first major public appearances post-baby, focuses on fashion.
On this afternoon, she's a hot motorcycle mama in a black- and-white L.A.M.B. zipped jacket with loose jeans and heels. Despite her pep, she says she's running on fumes after being up every night with Kingston. “I have a nanny,” she says, “but she's like my second two hands. I take care of him.”
Although it's five days before she shows her spring 2007 collection at Fashion Week, Stefani, 36, is cool and unflappable. “I don't feel like I have so much to prove,” she says. She's not going to any other shows during the week. “There's so much good stuff that I can feel intimidated by how creative everyone is. It's easier if you go with your heart and what you like and just be genuine about it.” Stefani's new pieces are inspired by Michelle Pfeiffer's '70s looks in the 1983 gangster classic Scarface. The collection is full of Guatemalan and Japanese prints, Rasta colors and military looks, and includes bags and shoes.
“It was time to do something a little more luxurious,” she says. “I designed this whole collection while I was pregnant, and that was a weird state of mind to be in.” At the time, Stefani didn't want to wear anything tight. “I wanted everything loose, so I went to a lot of sari shops and made dresses like that.” So for her designs, she focused on creating pieces that were comfortable and wearable.
“It's kind of a boring thing to do, but at the end of the day, it's worth it.” So were the 40 pregnancy pounds she is struggling to drop. “I still have 10 pounds to go, to be where I was,” she says, pulling down her jacket when it rides up and displays her flat stomach. “I ate whatever I wanted I was really going for it, for the first time in my life. I worked out through the whole pregnancy, but you start getting bigger and bigger, so what is the point? It was worth it to have a healthy baby.”
Stefani wears necklaces with black diamond charms: G (for her husband) and K (for her son). She and Rossdale, 40, named their son after Kingston, Jamaica. They had picked out the name six years ago and were saving it up, she says. “We talked about it so long ago, we had a baby Rasta hat that we bought in Jamaica, and he got to go from the hospital in it.” Her son continues to get such style benefits from having a designer mom. During the visit, three of Stefani's assistant designers were whipping up one-of-a-kind outfits for the little boy on their computers just for fun. “He's so lucky,” Stefani sighs. “He hangs out, and he's happy.”