For someone who has hardly changed their personal style since the 1990’s, Gwen Stefani still seems to do no wrong when it comes to fashion. One might think that there are only so many ways to work platinum blonde hair, signature red lips and tartan or monochrome, but the singer-turned-designer always comes up with something new, albeit sometimes a little outrageous, and that’s not to say that she hasn’t had her fair share of questionable outfit choices!
Although Gwen now has her own label L.A.M.B, which stands for Love, Angel, Music, Baby, she does have a couple of favourite designers;
“I’d buy everything, clean out Vivienne Westwood in my Galliano gown” – Rich Girl
John Galliano was the designer of Gwen’s infamous white and pink dip-dye wedding dress, which she wore when she married Bush rocker Gavin Rossdale. The dress was featured in many magazines and celebrated by most for being something a bit different, although that itself was nothing unusual for the superstar. It isn’t hard to see why these two designers in particular are mentioned by the star as their designs often feature some of the key ingredients in the Stefani style cocktail; leather, tartan, red, crop tops, monochrome and stripes.
It’s no wonder the world famous lead singer of rock/ska band No Doubt has turned her hand to fashion design, she was once quoted as saying “Being in a band, you can wear whatever you want – it’s like an excuse for Halloween every day” so it really was just a matter of time before she started sharing her love of creating outfits with the rest of the world. L.A.M.B was born shortly after the release of the album of the same name, during a period that Gwen has recently described as ‘a bit of fun’. The central focus of this period of the singer’s career was her fascination with the Harajuku Girls and the fashion of the youth of the Harajuku region of Japan and it was in the music video for the first release from the album; ‘What You Waiting For’, that the world was introduced to four Harajuku Girls that would go on to appear in all of the videos released from the L.A.M.B album. Even though the style of this particular group of Japanese girls was fairly extreme, costume-like and wouldn’t look out of place in an Anime strip, Gwen still managed to pull it off in white tights, huge platform shoes, tie-up corset style dresses and mini skirts that flared out in a very young, girly way with layers and layers of underskirts. Although this style was completely different from what we were used to seeing Gwen in, she still maintained her trademark platinum blonde hair and red lips, which she continues to this day, although she has moved away from the cartoon-like style, back to her rock chick roots.
As a band, No Doubt have returned to their unique mix of pop-rock and ska with their latest release ‘Push and Shove’ and Gwen Stefani has, in a way, returned to her 90s style, particularly wearing tiny crop tops that show off her envious washboard stomach that she has managed to pull right back, even after having two children! Of course this doesn’t even begin to cover Gwen’s red carpet appearances or magazine shoots for such publications as Vogue, Glamour and Marie Claire, but that is a whole other story. However, for the most part, Gwen has proved that, once you find your own style, which suits you perfectly, it will seemingly never go out of fashion.
By Louise Hayward