Gwen II ET Online
Gwen Stefani on Her New Eyewear Collection and Plans For New Music
Gwen Stefani is a busy lady!
The pop star, who will soon return to her Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood next month, just dropped some new sunglasses and optical ware for L.A.M.B. and gx by Gwen Stefani. The No Doubt leading lady chatted with ET's Katie Krause on the phone to talk all about her latest designs, being a mom of three boys and plans for new music.
Stefani's collection, which is her fourth spring/summer collection since its launch in 2016, is everything you'd expect from the style star -- statement-making pieces that are feminine with a touch of edge.
"I have been a huge fan of sunglasses forever and been so blessed through my lifetime people sending me sunglasses," said Stefani. "It shows exactly what kind of personality and style [you have] when you’re wearing sunglasses. But then when I started doing eyewear finally, it was right when I started needing glasses, so I was like, what would I wear if I had to wear glasses?"
Think stylish floral prints, multi-colored tortoise shell and geometric patterns that are versatile enough to wear with various looks.
"You want it to make a statement, but you also don’t want it to be distracting. You want it to go with every kind of look you want to pull out," the blonde beauty emphasized.
Like many of her creative ventures, Stefani's designs were inspired by moments in her own life -- including time spent at boyfriend Blake Shelton's hometown in Oklahoma.
“Being able to design clothes, shoes and handbags, all those things are an extension of who you are," Stefani explained. "I’ve always done stuff that reflected my mood or where I was at in my life and I think that even though the last five or three years my style has changed so much just being, reflecting of my own personal journey, you know, and where I’m at and spending time in Oklahoma or being on The Voice or being in Vegas now. All those things reflect whatever I’m wearing.”
Stefani dished that her 10-year-old son Zuma has a lot of opinions on eyewear as he himself is a full-time glasses wearer, which the mom of three boys admitted she wasn't fond of.
"Zuma is a super creative guy. He’s worn glasses since he was probably like four or five," she revealed. "And it was really upsetting. You don’t want your child to have to wear glasses. It’s like annoying when they’re trying to do anything, they’ve got their glasses on. You know what I mean? It’s like they’re on the bounce house and they’ve got the glasses on."
"He super much has an opinion," Stefani continued. "I’m always like, oh why don’t you wear those ones like in A Christmas Story -- those round ones, which I guess are a very unpopular shape. Whenever I try to get my team to do that for children, they’re like, 'Oh those are the worst selling ones like you can’t.' I just think they’re so cute and when I try to get Zuma to wear them, he’s like, 'No way.' So they know what they like."
The musician, who literally looks like she's aging backwards, will celebrate her 50th birthday in October, which isn't exactly viewed as a milestone for Stefani, but just another year for which she feels grateful for.
"I feel the same as I always feel, which is horrified," she candidly said. "Nobody wants to grow older. But, you know, I feel like I’m also in an amazing place in my life. I feel so blessed right now."
"I always knew at this point in my life I was going to be turning this age, which is hard to even say out loud, but where I would be with my kids and what place they would be at and I feel so, like, I’m in a good balance of being able to work and also be here a lot and enjoy being a mom and being there for them," Stefani continued. "It’s exhausting but, you know, being able to design and be at home and also be creative and also be a good parent as best as I can be – it’s inspiring. It’s a good time in my life. I mean, I cannot complain."
The multi-talented artist had countless hits as the lead singer of No Doubt and as a solo artist, which catapulted her to music icon status in the late '90s and early 2000s. Not to mention, her killer signature style (she's the OG crop top queen)! Most recently at Taylor Swift's New Year's Eve childhood heroes theme party, Swift's gal pal rocked Stefani's unforgettable blue hair and matching furry bikini top look.
"That’s amazing," Stefani said in response. "Anytime you can have any kind of inspiration on anybody is just, is hard to really, I think always throughout the success that has been going on for a while, which I’m so grateful – you never really absorb it. You can never really understand it’s real and I think that being on stage in Vegas right now has been a really amazing way to sort of take it in. Because when it’s such a small audience, compared to the shows I normally do, it’s so intimate, it’s like being able to see all the different kinds of people that come out that know the songs and know my life story and see my style and the way that they decided to dress up for that big night out, it’s just been really an eye-opener. Honestly, it never gets old. It’s always shocking. It’s always inspiring. More than anything else, it inspires me to keep wanting to do that."
So will she return to the studio anytime soon?
"I want to do some new music. I don’t really know what that is. Again, all these things is very much a reflection of where I’m at, so I want to say something, not really sure what that is, but I want to investigate it. And the only way to investigate it is to stop wasting my time on stuff that’s not important, so focusing on trying to do that."