New York’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week ended last night amidst a tornado in Brooklyn and a torrential downpour across the rest of the five boroughs, an interesting setting considering Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. show opened with a runway backdrop of lightening and storm clouds.
L.A.M.B. was the last show in an utterly exhausting week, and though the clothes were a little lacking — in style, not color — the overall experience was really, strangely fun.
Let’s start at the beginning. We spoke with Stefani backstage before the show, about her design process, her new fragrances, and her signature style. Stefani, despite her over the top styling and celebrity, was incredibly kind, calm, and down to earth. She explained that she created L.A.M.B. because she wanted something she could do at home.
“[My kids] are the whole reason I started L.A.M.B.” she told us. “I wanted a creative outlet and still have my kids around. So they’re there the whole time, but they get a little annoyed when I’m having my meetings.” But clothing design isn’t Stefani’s only venture — she’s launching a new set of five Harajuku-themed fragrances in November, a process she called “crazy,” “really hard” and definitely worth it.
“The reward of having a clothing line is having a fragrance. People asked me for years to do [one] and I was like, ‘Well, I’m in a band, why would I do that?’ …Now being able to do a line and have fragrance and the clothes — it’s all part of the layers of what you wear. I really enjoy doing it.’
We’ve made no secret of our obsession with red lipstick, so we couldn’t help but ask Gwen about hers. Though we were hoping for an answer that would reveal she’d worn the same magical shade of red for years, the reality is that she’s just like us. “I don’t wear one color,” she explained. “Today I chose a deeper, darker red, but it’s still a mixture. I mix them all up.”
As for her signature look of platinum blonde hair paired with ruby red lips, Gwen told us that while she doesn’t think she’ll be blonde forever, she’ll probably stick with the red. “My hubsand really likes the red. So I’d probably have to keep the red… I’d want to keep the marriage going,” she joked.
Getting into Stefani’s actual show was a process that hovered somewhere between a nightmare and a bad episode of the Real World / Road Rules Challenge. There were elbows, crazy crowds, and people who didn’t seem to understand that the show wasn’t going to start until at least 90% of the guests were inside.
But once inside, and safely in our seats, we enjoyed the eye candy that Gavin Rossdale bouncing a very handsome little Kingston on his lap, while Zuma snuggled with a nanny behind them. All of Stefani’s No Doubt bandmates were on hand — including ex-boyfriend Tony Kanal who sat three seats down from Rossdale.
The clothing was as cacophonous as the crowd, which meant lots of primary colors, tribal prints, and fits which we can’t imagine would look good on anyone but a model — though many sources have assured us that her line is a retailer’s dream. Good for Gwen! Even better, though, was the diversity in her casting and the bounce with which the models walked the runway. They actually seemed to be enjoying themselves, which is more than can be said for those we saw the rest of the week.
But while we loved the people watching, the tunes, and the models, Stefani’s finale took the cake. After coming out to what appeared to be a standing ovation (but what we suspect was actually people just trying to get a good look), Stefani found herself being ankle tackled by Kingston, who then joined his mother for the walk backstage. Yes, we died.