Frontwoman of rock band Gossip, style icon and long-time friend of fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier Beth Ditto announced yesterday that she would be launching her own plus-size fashion label. The singer has already walked the runway at Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier’s fashion shows told her fans that the line will be available on her website in February, but the proceedings will kick off with a special T-shirt collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier. She said ‘This line is by us, for us, period. It’s my lifelong dream to get to design real clothes for big people, clothes that are comfortable and cool’. Beth Ditto has long been known for her eccentric sartorial choices, so there’s no doubt that she’s achieved the coolness she was aiming for.
The limited edition T-shirt, retailing at a cool $165 is a nod to Jean Paul’s famous bullet bra corset. The debut collection is inspired by Ditto’s love of prints, colour and vintage clothing. The French couture designer said “Big girls are beautiful and Beth is super beautiful! Long live the beauty with shape, boobs and bottoms. This is a new concept, a loose fit corset. And Beth fits it perfectly”. This will be the first time Jean Paul Gaultier will venture into the plus-size industry, and also one of the few times a high end designer has made clothing for plus size women.
The T-shirt is stocked up to a size thirty and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Girls Rock Camp Foundation, a charity which helps send girls to music camps, of which Beth is an advisory board member. This isn’t Ditto’s first foray into fashion, however, as in 2009 she released an 80s-style capsule collection with British fashion retailer Evans. The singer has also long been considered a fashion icon, gracing red carpet events with her unique ensembles and walking the catwalk at Gaultier’s Spring 2011 show at Paris Fashion Week and more recently, the runway at Marc Jacobs’ Spring 2016 show. Gossip are in American indie rock band from Washington, most known for their song “Standing in the Way of Control” as well as their debut album with the same name. You can find the T-shirt at her website here.
Holly Martin
feature image: AFP
