Este informe no está disponible en español.

Reuters

Jennifer Lopez, Hilfiger Unveil 'J.Lo' Fashions

By Sarah Tippit

April 26, 2001
Copyright © 2001 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.

<-----

Actress Jennifer Lopez Launches Clothing Line - (WKMG)
(Reuters Photo)

<-----

LOS ANGELES - Attention women of the world who have problems finding casual wear to properly hug their curves: Jennifer Lopez wants to dress you in her favorite styles and make you look unashamedly sexy.

``It's time for the world to wear my look,'' Lopez told reporters at a press conference on Thursday to introduce a new line of self-designed ``sporty chic'' urban wear especially for women and spun from her own imagination. ``From little to voluptuous everybody gets to be sexy,'' she said.

The collection, worn by several models appearing with Lopez, looked like it comes straight off the streets of her native Bronx: Low slung French jeans with lace-up backs, tiny T shirts, powder blue velvet sweat suits, acid washed denim mini dresses stitched together from various pairs of jeans, denim spike-heeled boots.

J. Lo herself wore white bell-bottomed hip hugger slacks with attached white suspenders, a belly-baring white Lycra tube emblazoned with a sequined Puerto Rican flag, and chunky silver high heeled sandals.

``Just because you dress sexy doesn't mean you're a bad girl, it just means you know how to dress,'' Lopez said.

The ``J.Lo by Jennifer Lopez'' line is backed by an investment group led by fashion and retail veterans Andy Hilfiger and Larry Stemmerman. The team plans to launch the line of ``sporty chic'' and sexy denim, stretch and casual wear in time for the 2001 Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season.

A more extensive ``J.Lo Lifestyle'' collection including swimwear, eyewear and accessories is expected to follow, Lopez said.

The garments will be reminiscent of what the public has seen Lopez wear in her movies and videos but will not, at least in the beginning, include the kind of much talked about couture evening wear such as the barely there V-front Versace dress she wore to last year's Grammys (news - web sites) or the sheer Chanel number the wore to the 73rd annual Academy Awards (news - web sites) last month.

PRICES WILL RANGE FROM $20 TO $850

The J. Lo line will be carried in better department stores and specialty stores. Prices will range from around $20 for a T-shirt to $850 for a leather skirt.

Within the next year-and-a-half the company expects to top $100 million in sales, including the accessories, Andy Hilfiger, brother of lifestyle wear designer Tommy Hilfiger, told reporters. He declined to divulge any other financial details.

The shapely Lopez, who in February became the first woman to top both the U.S. music and movie charts in the same week with her current release, ``J Lo,'' and film ``The Wedding Planner'' approached Hilfiger and Stemmerman about the joint venture through her managers, the team said.

She told reporters that designing clothing is a childhood dream come true and stems from her efforts as a little girl growing up poor in the Bronx who cut up cheap and old clothes to make them fit better.

``Even before I learned to dance and sing and act in films I was just redesigning clothes. ... I found that there was not exactly what I needed that fit me at that time ... From the time I was little I would get a really whacked pair of pants really cheap and cut them and make a beautiful tiny mini skirt out of them because I was on a lower budget at that time,'' she said.

``Or I'd get just a plain sweatshirt and I'd make suspenders out of it by (cutting) off the sleeves, or I'd get a little pair of my pants for my birthday and I'd open them up, sew them together, cut them off, and I'd have a really cute little pink mini skirt, or something. I'd rip off the Smurf pockets.''

Even after becoming a star, Lopez said, she has had a difficult time finding clothes that fit her properly and has had to resort to having pieces tailor-made to fit both her narrow waist and voluptuous hips. Her line grows out of a desire to help other women like her find clothes that fit their curves.

``I find it is difficult for women who are curvaceous to find clothes in stores that fit. The voluptuous woman is almost ignored. I want to offer clothes that are wonderfully designed and will fit women of all sizes. Everybody gets to be sexy.''

Lopez said she's aiming to dress a wide range of women from preteens to adults.

Self-Determination Legislation | Puerto Rico Herald Home
Newsstand | Puerto Rico | U.S. Government | Archives
Search | Mailing List | Contact Us | Feedback