inevitable things

Jennifer Lopez Will Temporarily Spare the U.S. Her Clothing Line

Jennifer Lopez has decided to halt production of her Sweetface clothing line. Though Lopez was a pioneer in the celebrity clothing business, her hardly storied design career has been turbulent and, well, kind of sad. Try to suppress your shock. In 2001, she launched JLO as one of the first celebrity fashion lines. Remember her shows at New York Fashion Week? Despite the initial hype, the industry didn’t take her as a serious designer, and the line never attained the success of, say, Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. label. (Hell, we practically forgot she had a line until today’s news.) In 2007, Lopez finally decided to close JLO in the U.S. and distribute it only in other countries. But she thought America wanted more apparel by her, so she launched justsweet, which closed after only a few seasons at retail. If you find all this confusing and hard to keep track of, then you understand the main problem with the Lopez brand.

In 2003, Lopez launched Sweetface as an urban-streetwear spinoff to the JLO line. Was that necessary? Probably not. It wasn’t long before Sweetface evolved to a high-end contemporary line sold by places like Shopbop.com and Intermix. In 2006, it pulled in $200 million. But that lucre was short-lived.

Lopez’s clothing lines seem just as volatile as her image. One day she’s Selena, then she’s Jenny From the Block, then she’s J. Lo, then you’re on a red carpet circa 2007 and all the photographers are saying you’d better not dare call her J. Lo or she won’t pose for pictures. And then she’s having Marc Anthony’s babies and getting bangs, all the while not wearing any of the clothes or shoes or jewelry she purportedly designs.

Lopez plans to relaunch Sweetface “in the near future with new messaging points and an entirely new fashion point of view.” And if things don’t work out that hundred millionth time around, her babies won’t go hungry. JLO is still sold in 38 freestanding franchise stores and in 40 countries outside the U.S.

Jennifer Lopez Exits Apparel in the U.S. [WWD]

Jennifer Lopez Will Temporarily Spare the U.S. Her Clothing Line