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Selling Lauren Conrad

The MTV reality star wants to build a brand around her image. First she has to prove her credibility.

source: 華爾街日報

蘿倫.康瑞特 自我推銷

這位MTV 真人秀的明星想要利用自己的形象來建立個人品牌。首先,她必須證明自己的可信度。

Related article: MTV Fashions More Hype For ‘The Hills’ Premiere


Lauren Conrad is famous for being on a reality show. But what she really wants is to run a merchandising empire.

Ms. Conrad, 22, is the star of "The Hills," the reality show that was MTV's highest-rated program last fall. For the past two years, cameras have captured her days as a fashion-magazine intern and nights as a club-hopper who flirts with guys and spars with friends. To translate her fame into a fashion career, she and her father have hired a team of Hollywood-industry advisers and signed several licensing and endorsement deals. The process isn't always smooth. The network that made her famous won't promote her enterprises on air. And Ms. Conrad, determined to assert her fashion vision, sometimes ignores the suggestions of her more seasoned advisers.


"I'm sure a lot of people don't take me seriously," she says.

Many young celebrities are trying to follow the success of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who parlayed roles on a TV sitcom into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate that has sold books, videos, films and clothes. Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton have made licensing deals based on pop-music success and a famous last name. Ms. Conrad represents the next generation of branders -- reality stars who are famous only for their willingness to let cameras into their private lives. Last week, Ms. Conrad's nemesis on "The Hills," Heidi Montag, announced her own plans to launch a clothing line. And from E! Entertainment Television reality show "Sunset Tan," tanning-salon owners Devin Haman and Jeff Bozz recently came out with a line of tanning moisturizers.


To keep themselves in the spotlight, Ms. Conrad and her contemporaries are willing citizens of a tabloid world. During a recent breakfast interview at an outdoor café in Los Angeles, Ms. Conrad said she suspected a photographer was taking pictures of her from across the street. She declined to move to an inside table. Instead, she looked left and right before taking quick bites of her egg whites. "No one eats pretty," she said.


Less than three hours later, Ms. Conrad sent her breakfast companion an email with a photo attached of her enjoying her eggs. She had found the photo after a Google search. "Haha they always get it!" she wrote.

Ms. Conrad's team monitors the star's symbiotic relationship with the press. It's essential that she hit the hot spots, where tabloid photographers lurk. Yet because Ms. Conrad's corporate relationships benefit from her good-girl image, they want her to go to a lot of parties without partying a lot.


When Ms. Conrad turned 21, her publicist, Nicole Perez, sat down with her client to discuss responsible drinking. "It's the same conversation you'd have as a parent with a child," she says. Ms. Conrad's parents watch over her, too, by logging on to gossip blogs. If their daughter appears too tipsy in a photo, she hears from them. "We will tell her to ratchet it back," says her father, Jim Conrad.


The star makes money on her clothing line only if it is profitable. Kitson boutique owner Fraser Ross says it's selling well. Will it catch on with nonfans? "It's too early to tell," he says.

Ms. Conrad teamed up with leather-goods maker Linea Pelle on a line of bags ($45 to $350), sold online only. The company says it has sold "hundreds."

For the past year, Ms. Conrad has been the face of mark cosmetics, aimed at college-age women. Sales of products chosen as "Laren's faves" routinely rise by at least 10%, the comany says.


Ms. Conrad says she's trying to create a line of clothes that she and her friends would wear. Her latest collection, for fall, is made up primarily of strapless dresses and halter tops in white, black and deep purple. She has insisted that her pieces be made from high-end cotton jersey and manufactured in the U.S. Prices range from $44 for a tank top to $220 for a dress. While the cost is high for the young fans of "The Hills," Mr. Friedman says he is unconcerned. "This isn't a souvenir line," he says.


Shortly before Ms. Conrad's first runway show last Tuesday, she met with several advisers and assistants to prepare. Accessories were a focal point. "We need to fall it up," Ms. Conrad said, as she gave a pair of leather gloves to a model in a strapless dress. Ms. Conrad explained that her trip as a Teen Vogue intern to Paris influenced her designs. As she recorded which accessories the models would wear, she called out, "How do you spell 'beret'?"


On hand that day were Sherry Wood, a Los Angeles fashion designer with 25 years of experience who was hired to oversee the line and mentor Ms. Conrad, and Jeffrey Relf, a runway-show producer. While Ms. Conrad selected high-heeled shoes for most of the models, Mr. Relf told her some of the models needed to wear knee-high boots for dramatic effect. When one model tried on the boots, Ms. Conrad said, "If a girl walked down the street in this, I wouldn't think it was cute."


"We are talking about the runway, not real life," Mr. Relf said.

Later that afternoon, Mr. Relf explained that experienced designers usually defer to his advice, and that Ms. Conrad had finally agreed that a few models would wear boots. "Lauren's open and that's not how a lot of celebrities are," he said.

During the show, however, the models did not wear boots. "It didn't look good," Ms. Conrad says.


Earlier this year, Kitson, a boutique in a Beverly Hills shopping

district, offered to host a party to celebrate the collection. Kitson parties are known for attracting a lot of press. Ms. Conrad preferred to have the party at Intuition, a smaller boutique in an area with less foot traffic. Her publicist, Ms. Perez, says she pushed for Kitson, telling her client: "Lauren, we could make it huge -- every magazine would cover it." The party was at Intuition. "It didn't get a lot of coverage," Ms. Perez says.

"I try really hard to separate myself from other celebrity brands," Ms. Conrad says.


Her first collection, for spring 2008, just arrived in stores. The Lauren Conrad Collection now appears in nearly 500 boutiques. A spokeswoman for Holt Renfrew, a Canadian department store, says that in the last two weeks, the line has generated a 28% sell-through rate (the percentage of items bought at full retail price) at its nine locations. An average sell-through rate at the stores is just over 10%.


Ms. Conrad says she will continue to work hard to prove herself as a designer. She's designing a line of T-shirts. She wants to do "a best friend project" -- most likely a line of furniture -- with one of her roommates. And she plans to launch a charitable foundation. "I don't think I should be criticized for taking advantage of an opportunity to realize my dream," she says. "It'd be silly not to."