How Jessica Simpson Built a Billion-Dollar Fashion Empire
Jessica Simpson attends the after party of the Bloomberg/Vanity Fair White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington on Saturday, May 3, 2014.
Photographer: Pete Marovich/BloombergJessica Simpson’s fashion line hauls in about $1 billion in annual sales, an aberration in a retail landscape littered with dead celebrity brands.
David Hasselhoff’s Malibu Dave, Mandy Moore’s Mblem, Heidi Montag’s Heidiwood—the list of defunct fashion labels of the famous is endless. Yet Simpson’s line has not only survived, it’s grown over the past decade into a true lifestyle empire. How did she accomplish such a feat? According to the pop star, Simpson just knows what women want. Her assortment of designs seeks to appeal to all kinds of women—a teen searching the mall for a cool denim jacket, a plus-size girl looking for a going-out dress, a grandmother who wants to dazzle in a chic top.