Wow, time goes by really fast, doesn’t it? It was a decade ago that Jessica Simpson, American cultural icon, first launched her namesake clothing line, enabling us all to wear slightly platformed peep-toe pumps in varying shades of patent, and to stand tall among giants.
Since that day, the collection has transformed its footwear, clothing, and fragrance lines into a $1 billion business, with no signs of slowing down as it expands its offerings into activewear (code name: athleisure). “A lot of people are afraid to listen [to their instinct] because a dream of [theirs] could be too big and it seems too big to attain,” Simpson told WWD, who interviewed her to commemorate this important milestone. “I don’t believe any dream is too big. There are always more dreams to have and I feel that if you look at life that way, nothing will ever seem like a failure.”
The year 2005, in retrospect, seems like a rough time to have been alive fashionally speaking—I recall baggy cargo capris and embroidered bootcut jeans in impossible washes and camisole tops that gathered under the bust and flared out to emphasize their gauzy floral prints, inevitably in a variation of turquoise. But through the years, these silhouettes evolved into cleaner lines and better choices on the Pantone spectrum.
In 2007, Simpson held a fashion show at Miami Swim Fashion Week. The maillot at right is a lasting look, minus the large belt that was popular around ‘05 (and is coming back), though the Music Man ensemble at left has, sorry to say, not endured.