Rachel Zoe Stylist, as a Celebrity Designer
In the locker room at Saks club on the third floor of its flagship Fifth Avenue, Rachel Zoe advises petite, strawberry-blonde 17-year-old shopping with her mother on how to wear a white blazer sequins. "I like to wear it a little more, so you can be zero or two or four," she tells her. "If this part is too small," she says, explaining that the seam does not have to hit below the shoulder for cool slouchy effect, "you can not fool him." As a stylist, film star Zoe reportedly pay $ 10,000 per day for this advice to dress, but today, it is not just style, it is also to sell her new clothing line, Rachel Zoe Collection, which hit more than 100 retail sales floors in the U.S. and Canada four weeks ago.

Seventies and Boho-style products, which include a suitable, long dresses, blouses, sequin minidresses, jackets and furs errors, look exactly like something Zoe would wear. "It's un-chic," she tells her next client, a 30-ish hedge fund manager, helping her in the camel cape. "I do not want to sound like a walking advertisement, but it is." This is a $ 695 wool cape is sold in Nordstrom, which will rearrange it before the weather actually feels like fall, and then they'll probably sell it again.

Zoe was a bold tabloid title since 2004, when she made over Nicole Richie in her Boho chic look. But she became a star in her own right after her reality show Bravo Rachel Zoe Project debuted in 2008, the last season finale attracting 1.1. million viewers (the show premieres its fourth season tonight.) So when her collection debuted at New York Fashion Week last February, he made it as just another clothing line from celebrity. But Zoe line, unlike many celebrity lines, is neither cheap nor fleeting, nor forgettably gray. The difference can be fashion credibility it gained after working for years behind the scenes, not just dressing people like Britney Spears and Jennifer Garner, but the style of fashion shoots for magazines such as Harper `s Bazaar and advertising campaigns for brands such as True Religion.

Nobody knew what the red carpet stylists lasted until Barbara Tfank smartly dressed Uma Thurman in the 1995 Oscar Prada (it was one of the first cases in which the star had appeared in that you can actually bribe from the bar, as opposed to specifically dress) . Since none of them became as famous as Zoe, by increasing public fascination with the machinations of the fashion industry (in part because of the reality show like it!) And the rapid spread of fashion sites in need of their celebrity. Now stylists like Zoe, Nicola Formichetti (who became creative director Mugler after laying Lady Gaga) and Taylor Tomasi-Hill (which advises the Sigerson Morrison) is almost as famous as they dress the stars, as well as the creation of identity is part of the job - something the agents look for when signing new talent.

For the first time line, the launch of Rachel Zoe collection was unusually high. Nordstrom, Bloomingdale, at Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Intermix all picked it up, and they argue that they already have trouble keeping units, which range from $ 250 to $ 700 in stock. "It's been a long time since we took a risk with the first designer in Bloomingdale", said Stephanie Solomon, director of women's fashion chain, which usually starts new line only "a handful of stores" (Zoe is in line eight). Nordstrom vice president of designer apparel, Jennifer Wheeler agrees that something felt, features this line: "It's great when you have a name, but if you do not have the goods - if the collection was not good - it will not work" she says. Nordstrom executives say sales through rate four times expectations. Colleen Sherin, fashion director of Saks senior, also describes the amount Sachs bought the collection as "unusual." "It's not just a season these things," says Shereen. "She is a serious business."

Zoe, whose favorite word "May" (short for "key") and "banana" and "I die," may not sound like your typical business woman. But she strongly prefers to call himself that, instead, and strategic moves she did in conceiving of this line show that it really is an entrepreneur, "celebrity." - and very good. Firstly, it has partnered with Li & Fung, a highly successful producer who makes $ 20 billion in U.S. sales annually and employs House of Deréon, Kohl line Jennifer Lopez and Sean John clothing sportswear men among their brands. Catherine Moellering, executive vice president of Tobe, the retail consulting firm trends, suspects Li & Fung has given retailers confidence, from a practical point of view. She explains, " From Li & Fung, [retailers] feel very comfortable leaving him in terms of production. It's going to be perfect, and there are not always great examples of celebrities startups that can be done. Li & Fung does not know how to do this - they understand the profitability of the dance. "

Secondly, Zoe line is positioned in a lack of market. Price point Rachel Zoe Collection puts it "right on the verge of a bridge" - a category which includes Tory Burch and Elie Tahari - ", which remains the most problematic in the puzzle department store", Moellering said. Moellering wonders if Li & Fung, which boasts strong relationships with many retailers, and tapped his network to find out where the largest share of the market will be for Zoe: "In relation to the market, and where there is a void that seems very smart, to me. "

Zoe says that she made a conscious decision about the prices, "because I think that there are enough brilliant design makes a fashion designer at this point." She adds: "I was really obsessive about keeping the price. And I remember there were some parts that I liked the sample, and I sat with my design team and it was so, the amount of money and I would be, I'm not going to that the higher price category. It's too expensive. "

She made a bold debut tailoring, which is never easy to do, and certainly not for the first collection, including trouser suits in plaid, black and tan. Sequined dresses and tiered cocktail dresses in cream and leopards also figure prominently. Outerwear includes faux-fur jackets and coats with artificial fur panels - easy shortcut for those who want to look up trademark stylist. Line is more glam than LA New York cool - stylish, but not so stylish that it's scary to casual observers of fashion.

Moellering easy to see Zoe's brand is "full of life to" pretend to grow until it encompasses everything from clothing to jewelry swimwear for flavor. "Li & Fung, they do not, so it was $ 20 million dollars of business, they do it because they want it to be a multibillion-dollar business."

Zoe will tell you that she is fighting for it all. "I have worked with many designers. I do understand the design process," she says. "It's so fun, but it's a big job. I chose this glitter of ten thousand sequins, I chose the coat of wool of a hundred, I chose this artificial fur of the four hundred samples of fake fur." ​​Such statements are not unusual in celebrity lines with clothing, which often tell the press they know how to make a lot of clothes when they actually have little in common with the line that bears their name. But von Zoe as a stylist brings her more reliable. "She's a celebrity because she is an incredible stylist," says Wheeler, Nordstrom. "Two very interrelated. She always had a finger on the pulse of fashion, where there is, and it really helped push it in that direction. And she knows what makes women look good." Although Zoe says that she did not know it would be aesthetic huge on the runways, where she launched a line, that's exactly what happened. "Who really Boho and seventies better than Rachel?" Moellering said. "And those should be two of the biggest trends right now."

Zoe admits that it is not easy to go from stylist to designer in the rarefied world of haute couture. "I sat with these buyers and fashion directors of these stores have many, many years," she says. "And the Editor of the heads and stuff - the idea, judging by his petrifying. Petrifying." Added load line is an important obstacle, either. New labels tend to have more time to plan his first collection than their second, third, fourth and so on, and the subsequent collection really tell retailers how much the line has the stamina. Zoe says that she is primed to handle the pace of the legendary fashion. "Now I have a style in the spring for a presentation in a couple of weeks, but the next day we started doing sketches and fabric for fall, so it's kind of keeping your head in one place and be clear about what you're in the season .. But I always had to deal with how the stylist and fashion editor of a model wearing fur in June and December bikini "She says you can expect to reduce the load in the pants some iteration of each season - with sequins and faux fur, of course. In addition, in the works: fragrance, jewelry and cosmetics.

Back to Saks Fifth Avenue Club, when Zoe wraps her visits with private clients, CEO of Saks, Stephen I. Sadove Zoe pulls to one side. "You see your window? This feature our window," he tells her. It has not, but it will look like after she welcomed packed room full of fans at the cocktail party a few floors up.

"I will always be the style. This is the essence of what I do. It's who I am. I love my customers," says Zoe. Many of them are happy to support it by wearing the line. However, Zoe adds: "If they wear it, great. If they do not, that's okay too. Definitely not making it in the face." Still Jennifer Lopez, who is not a client of Zoe, already have pieces from the museum's collection in for two public performances. InStyle endorsed his party in Los Angeles in June, where celebrities like Amber Valetta and Ali Larter were happy to pieces. Marketing opportunities, as not only happen to someone clothing line - and that's why the name, as Zoe is so valuable.