March 05 2008

Want to Dress Like Avril? (I Don't.)

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Avril Lavigne, the rock star known for her kohl-rimmed eyes, is teaming up with retailer Kohl’s and launching her own rocker-chick clothing line in July.

Dubbed Abbey Dawn (Lavigne’s childhood nickname), the back-to-school juniors’ collection will draw on the eclectic contents of Lavigne’s own closet: “a lot of hot pinks and blacks and stars and purple and zebra,” she says. “Basically, everything I wear.” (But nope, there’s nary a necktie.)

“I have a very particular style,” says Lavigne, 23 — one that’s often replicated by her fans and one that’s not readily available at the local mall. “I want it to be available to a lot of girls, and I want it to be affordable.” Apparel prices will range from $24 to $48. “I walked through (a Los Angeles) Kohl’s the other day and said, ‘Oh, when my line is here it’s totally going to stand out.’ ”

Mixing skulls and plaids with checks and stripes, it’s “a rock collection with a feminine edge,” says Don Brennan of Kohl’s. “I think it will broaden who we bring into our junior department,” which is dominated by the Candie’s brand (last month, Hayden Panettiere was named the new spokeswoman).

Unlike other celebrity-endorsed collections, Lavigne stresses she’s not just entering into a licensing deal. “I actually am the designer. What’s really important to me is that everything fits well and is well-made, so I try everything on and approve it all.”

And she says she’ll actually wear it, including on stage during her Best Damn Tour, which launches today in her native Canada, in Victoria, British Columbia. The second she can get herself into an Abbey Dawn hoodie and pair of jeans (her most-anticipated pieces), she will. “I can’t wait,” she says. And “juniors” label notwithstanding, “I’m making sure that I think people in their 20s are going to wear it because it’s going to be a sexy fit, not just, ‘Oh, T-shirts and hoodies.’ The hoodies are slimming. It’s not a thick, bulky material.”

Having conquered the music industry (her third album, 2007’s The Best Damn Thing, made its debut at No. 1), Lavigne says she’s thrilled to be tapping into a “new creative energy” through fashion. “I’m very visual. It’s time for me to do something new.”

There’s another visual medium she’s looking to put her stamp on. “I want to — it’s just going to sound crazy, but I’m going to make it happen — I want a film career,” says Lavigne, who acted in 2006’s Fast Food Nation and voiced a role in the animated Over the Hedge. “So I go on auditions, I read scripts. It’s not going to be one of those things, ‘Oh, a singer doing a movie.’ ” Come fall, after her tour, “I’m really going to focus on that.”

Her husband of two years, Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley, is “excited for me because he knows, especially with the clothing, I’ve wanted to do this for a while. He’s really supportive. He likes anything I like pretty much.”

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