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Olsen Twins Label a Surprise Fashion Hit

By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 27, 2009 9:10 AM CDT

(Newser) – With no formal fashion training and a celebrity image that’s more cutesy than couture, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have transformed into unlikely fashion icons, the New York Times reports. Sales of their high-end label The Row are around $10 million—better than many established brands—and they’re expected to climb by 30%. “I don’t think anybody really cares that it’s Mary-Kate and Ashley’s collection,” a fashion director says. “They’re buying it because they like it.”

The Row has succeeded by breaking fashion rules and ignoring flash-in-the-pan trends in favor of the basics: “the perfect schoolboy blazer, the perfect leather leggings, the perfect peacoat,” another insider says. And for the hard-working twins, now 23, fashion offers a creative outlet they never had. “We never had the time to discover, ‘Oh, I love doing this,’” Ashley says. “So for us this experience in fashion has been amazing.”

Mary-Kate, left, and Ashley Olsen pose prior to the  presentation of the Spring-Summer 2007 ready to wear collection by British designer John Galliano for French fashion house Dior in Paris.
Mary-Kate, left, and Ashley Olsen pose prior to the presentation of the Spring-Summer 2007 ready to wear collection by British designer John Galliano for French fashion house Dior in Paris.   (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere, File)
Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, right, arrive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala, in New York on Monday, May 5, 2008.
Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, right, arrive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala, in New York on Monday, May 5, 2008.   (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
Ashley, left, and Mary-Kate Olsen pose for a picture at the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York, Monday, June 4, 2007.
Ashley, left, and Mary-Kate Olsen pose for a picture at the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York, Monday, June 4, 2007.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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The customer who buys the clothes almost never knows we’re involved. - Ashley Olsen

I think the way to think about The Row is that it offers the perfect blank—the perfect schoolboy blazer, the perfect leather leggings, the perfect peacoat. - Jim Gold, chief executive of Bergdorf Goodman

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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
cognitivefilter
Aug 29, 2009 6:16 AM CDT
both of their lines are fantastic

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