Forever 21 Goes Gaga for Its First Designer Collaboration with Brian Lichtenberg
It looks like Forever 21 is sick of being sued. Designers including Diane von Furstenberg, Anna Sui and others have filed no less than 50 lawsuits against the California-based fast fashion chain, mostly for copyright infringement, over the past four years. Though the privately-held company's grown by leaps and bounds lately â€"- gaining a strong foothold in that Asian fashionista paradise of Tokyo and adding more styles in larger sizes -â€" settling lawsuit after lawsuit impacts the bottom line. So Forever 21 did what it does best, and copied -- er, took inspiration from -- such cheap and chic competitors as Target (TGT) and H&M to set up its own designer collaboration.
Enter Brian Lichtenberg, an LA designer who'll be turning out a collection of graphic t-shirts for the fickle-yet-fanatic Forever 21 shopper. He's a perfect choice.
Maybe Brian Lichtenberg doesn't quite have the name recognition of, say, Jean Paul Gaultier or Dolce & Gabbana. But it's only a matter of time. Though he's only 25 years old, Lichtenberg's already dressed mega pop stars the likes of Rihanna and M.I.A., the latter of whom is a big fan of his holographic leggings.
But Lichtenberg's latest enterprise -- costuming for music videos â€"- is going to catapult him into the global spotlight. He recently designed Beyoncé's dance- and gyrate-worthy patchwork lace bodysuit for her video "Diva" and now he's getting even more notoriety for crafting a barely-there number made of crime scene tape to criss-cross Lady Gaga's lady parts in her music video "Telephone."
When you think that the typical Forever 21 shopper (teens and twenty-somethings) can often be spotted texting and listening to music on earbuds while perusing the store's crammed-to-overflowing racks of trendy threads, it's an easy leap to imagine that tops designed by the guy who dresses Beyoncé and Gaga will be highly coveted items. They may be so hot, in fact, that selling them may push the company's already rapid inventory turn into warp speed. Let's just hope such demand doesn't send Forever 21 back to using sweatshop labor.
Image via Brian Lichtenberg