SINGAPORE : Kate Moss wannabes, hold your breath: The collection that the willowy supermodel designed for London High Street label Topshop is headed for Singapore.

The good news was confirmed over the weekend by staffers who work at Topshop outlets here.

Generating buzz as soon as the collaboration was announced late last year, the collection — which was given the high fashion stamp of approval thanks to its inclusion in this month’s UK Vogue — will be launched on May 1 in the United Kingdom, before travelling to Topshop stores around the world.

But despite the inviting prospect that women here may soon be strutting around in togs designed by the uber fashionista, the reality is that Moss’ handiwork doesn’t look all that different from most of the other clothes at Topshop.

Retro prints, skinny jeans — aren’t women’s wardrobes already full of these?

But at least Moss, 33, has come along to officially validate the waif look that everyone has been trying to ape: A look that she has been wearing to perfection since bursting onto the fashion scene at age 14.

The question is: Should consumers buy into it? Do celebrities make good fashion designers?

Are They Up To It?

They certainly seem to think so.

Everyone from rappers to socialites to pop legends is in the fashion game these days, albeit to varying degrees of success.

The former Puff Daddy — now known as P Diddy — kicked off the craze in 1998 when he launched his Sean John line, offering clothes meant to complement the hip-hop lifestyle.

After that, everyone seemed to think their fashion sense was good enough for the runway.

Jennifer Lopez quickly launched JLo by Jennifer Lopez, which offered women the option of dressing up in luxury sweat suits.

A string of other celebrities, from Victoria Beckham and Mandy Moore to Milla Jovovich and Justin Timberlake, have since been devoting much of their free time to operating their own fashion side businesses.

Last month, Madonna’s M label was launched by European retailer H&M, and in June Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker is to unveil her “Bitten” line.

Madonna, Parker and Moss all have one thing in common: They are recognised as style icons.

But do stylist-made fashionistas really have the credentials to design their own clothes?

“I don’t see why not,” said Taiwanese-born designer Baylene Li, who helms local brand Baylene. “It’s great for the scene. People look up to celebrities for what they wear, what they carry, so it makes sense for them to start designing.”

Dress Like A Star

Whereas once the fashion-inclined had to scrounge around in vintage shops and department stores to find suitably priced knock-offs to create their own pseudo-celebrity wardrobes, now celebrities are bringing their styles directly to consumers.

What’s more, big names like Madonna and Parker are creating lines that are priced for the budget fashionista: All 400 items in Parker’s “Bitten” collection will reportedly be priced at less than US$19.98 ($30.30).

Moss will be going a slightly different route: Rightly expecting that people will pay to wear a Kate Moss-branded dress, the most expensive pieces in her collection will be priced at around £200 ($601).

Of course, no matter how much people are willing to plonk down for a pair of jeans with a celebrity’s name sewn into the label, there’s no guarantee that they’ll turn head like a celebrity.

In a Women’s Wear Daily article about the waning fortunes of celebrity-designed collections, an American market analyst noted: “The thing about it is that nearly all celebrities have stylists to make them look the way they do.

It’s very hard to translate that look into a product line, which is really what the customer is buying into.”

Translation: Celebs have a lot of help looking as good as they do. Can their $30 or even $600 designs help lesser mortals look just as dazzling?

Designs On Fashion

It seems that consumers may be catching on to the fact that celebrity-designed clothes might not be all they’re cracked up to be.

In the United States, fashion bible Women’s Wear Daily reported late last year that celebrity fashion lines were on the wane — with high-profile brands like JLo by Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce’s House of Dereon not doing as well as expected.

That hasn’t stopped other celebrities from trying their hand at designing, perhaps encouraged by the success of people like Gwen Stefani, whose L.A.M.B. line has evolved from a fan-supported venture into a serious high fashion contender.

It has even become one of the staples at the revered New York Fashion Week.

But not everyone has done as well as Stefani, who earned a reputation for wearing self-made clothes during her days as the lead singer of ska-pop band No Doubt.

Sarah Jessica Parker, for instance, has come under fire for — as one blogger put it — “having the cheek to think she can design clothes”.

This despite the fact her fashionista pedigree is largely the creation of Sex and the City stylist Patricia Field, who also worked on last year’s The Devil Wears Prada.

In fact, Parker may not be as popular a style icon as many people give her credit for.

She famously tanked as the face of US clothing brand GAP in 2004 and was hastily replaced by much younger soul singer Joss Stone.

And earlier this year, when looks from her “Bitten” line were leaked onto the Internet, the mostly negative reviews they elicited caused her business partner, US retailer Steve & Barry, to demand that all pictures be removed.

Meanwhile, Moss’ Topshop line has been raved over, cementing the supermodel’s place in pop culture as the purveyor of all things fashionable.

“No girl in this country moves until she has seen what Kate Moss is wearing when she steps out of her house,” Vogue writer Sarah Mower said of Moss. “She’s different. She puts on a man’s vest and it’s on everyone else.”

Soon it could be on every woman in Singapore, too.

Spend wisely. - TODAY/ra