MTV News (Oct. 13th 2005)

Gwen Stefani: Fabric Kingdom

Gwen Stefani is late. Her very first L.A.M.B. fashion show is set to start at 8 p.m. at New York's Roseland Ballroom, and it's already 8:45. There are so many celebrities — Diddy, Ashanti, Damon Dash, Kelly Osbourne, Nicky Hilton — that some even spill over from the coveted front row into (gasp!) the second row. But celeb or no, everyone's in the same boat — sitting and waiting, listening to the overture from "The Sound of Music," which has been played so many times that people start whispering that no one ever needs to see that movie again.

As the house lights dim, an ominous guitar sounds and a black light falls on four cars that are hiked up hydraulically and parked on the catwalk, which start honking as their white sheets are pulled off and models emerge from inside. And instead of a straight take on "The Sound of Music" score, it's now become a remix, incorporating bits and pieces not only of Gwen's music (with three new songs as well as a few recognizable ones from Love, Angel, Music, Baby) but also tracks from her husband Gavin Rossdale's new band, Institute.

Model after model proceeds down the walkway, which is sprinkled with white powder and glitter, wearing flowing dresses and gowns with prints of snakeskin, chrysanthemum and wisteria, as the song mix incorporates the looks parading by: "Wisteria blossom/ Creeping through my heart ..."

The outfits keep coming — gangster trench coats, scalloped blazers, pencil skirts, cropped jodhpurs, track pants, drawstring blouses — and various "looks" begin to emerge. Like something Gwen calls "Gatsby Rasta," combining patrician English countryside wear with a Rastafarian color scheme, and another she calls "Pirate Trooper," a look inspired by paratrooper jumpsuits and Vivienne Westwood's 1970s buccaneers. After the last piece is modeled — a mix silk wedding gown — Gwen takes her turn on the runway. To the chorus of "Hollaback Girl," she walks out, all smiles and waves, pantomimes tears running down her face, and, mouthing the words to her song, raises her arms in victory, bows and walks off.

"Just don't wake me up!" Gwen gushes afterwards, hanging out backstage with a crowd of reporters and well-wishers. "Because I'm saying, that was pretty great. That was beyond any dream I've ever had. It was so incredible, just to be able to have a show and to be able to share it with everyone in that kind of way ... and all these unbelievable, beautiful, tall skinny girls that I just want to hit because they're so pretty, walking in the clothes. It was extraordinary."

So extraordinary that it cost a million dollars — which she was luckily able to convince Sony Computer Entertainment to pony up, in exchange for placing promotional PSPs in the front-row seats.

This blown-out fashion extravaganza is a far cry from her more humble beginnings as a teenager in Anaheim, California, in the heart of Orange County. There, she'd follow her mother to the fabric store and her mom would let her choose her own buttons, zippers, and threads and encouraged her to make her own clothes. Gwen's taste evolved, and she went from wearing tomboyish overalls, jumpers, and baseball caps to finding pegged men's pajama bottoms and making corset-style drop-waist dresses with cheerleader skirts, which she'd pair with boxer shorts, fishnets and Doc Martens. "That was it," Gwen says. "Suddenly you hit puberty, and it's like, you know, thrift stores! I just started deconstructing everything from thrift stores."

When No Doubt began, Gwen even made the band's costumes. But once people started noticing the clothes, she'd clam up; she didn't want the focus to be on that — not when No Doubt were trying to be noticed for their music. "I always used to be so embarrassed talking about style," she explains. "I'd be like, 'You know, it's not something you're supposed to talk about, it's like, you look at it, it's a visual.' Plus, I was never a fashion person. I didn't read fashion magazines, I was always a thrift-store girl, really anti-supermodels and models. It was like, 'Oh, you can't get those clothes [you see in magazines]! If you find them, they're only in size 4 and super expensive!' "

So she made her own clothes. And she's still doing that, in a way, with L.A.M.B. — she only makes clothes she'd want to wear herself. "I wasn't going to do the Target line," Gwen says. "I wasn't going to do a line for my fans because they were so cheap. I want to make stuff for myself. It's a kinda selfish thing ... I am very selfish!"

L.A.M.B. certainly doesn't come at Target prices — pieces range from $75 to $950. But because Gwen is not trying to cater to anyone but herself, the L.A.M.B. looks always have an authentic Gwen stamp — down to the gothic-print lyrics often imprinted on the hems, collars, and the fronts of dresses. The exchange goes both ways — references to fashion and designers are throughout her debut album, especially in the song "Harajuku Girls," which lists such cutting-edge Japanese labels as Super Lovers, Bathing Ape and Hysteric Glamour as well as established designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano, among others. ("What's that you got on? Is it Comme des Garcons?") The song is a check list of the things she loves in fashion, and the listener has to wonder: Which came first, the style or the song?

"I think it all kinda comes from the same place, you know? It really does," Gwen says. "You write a song, you create a piece of art, clothing, it all kinda comes from the same place for me. I love design and I love creating something from nothing, whether it be music or clothes or painting or any of these things."

Gwen's next offering is her Harajuku Lovers line of more affordable clothing and novelty merchandise, featuring products relating to her song lyrics, such as bubble gum, banana-shaped erasers, and lip gloss. It's already available in Kitson, and it will be in Urban Outfitters this fall. And while it's not exactly her version of a low-rent Target line, it is an acknowledgement that her fans might not be able to afford the couture from L.A.M.B., which is now available in more than 200 stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom and already selling in the $40 million range per year. She's not yet at the same level as Diddy's Sean John line, which sells about $400 million annually, or Jennifer Lopez's Sweetface line, which sells in the $200 million range — but she's determined to get there. This current spring/summer collection is her fifth, and she already has the next one, for fall '06, in the can.

Fashion could be a nice fallback for Gwen if she ever decides to hang up the mic. But she says that at least for right now, she's just doing it for fun. "It's more of a passion, just something I like to do and find pleasure in. And it's such a passion for me that I could just do that full-time if I took out all the other things that I do," she says. "It's different than music, but it still has the same kind of reward in a way. There's something about the process, of creating it, that's what I love. It's fun to wear the clothes, but it's kind of like making cookies. At the end of the day, the cookie? Whatever, I already ate 14 scoops of the dough!

"I'm very much like a baby at the whole thing," she adds. "It feels like everything up until this point has been me learning and trying to get my feet around the whole design thing. But now, here we go!"