For some of us Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen will forever be the baby Michelle Tanner whom they played on the tv show Full House which ran from 1987 to 1995. These two young women, now at the age of 23, are all grown up. They also started a fashion line called The Row in 2007.

So what’s new about that since many celebs seem to be doing fashion design now days?  The news is that the petite identical twin actors are doing it right! Initially mostly dismissed as one of “those celebrity fashion” lines, their clothes and style have come into their own and the Olsens went on to prove their critics wrong.

On Wednesday, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen were part of 31 new designers invited into the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of America. The Olsen twins were personally invited by CDFA president Diane Von Furstenberg. The CDFA is a not-for-profit trade organization of over 300 of America’s foremost designers. Membership is by invitation only and the Olsen twins join a prestigious group of designers that include such well known designers as Max Azria and Vera Wang.

Ashley Olsen was also recently invited to “The Future of Women’s Fashion” discussion alongside designer Isaac Mizrahi and Washington Post fashion editor Robin Givhan where she said:

“A lot of celebrities get involved because they want to slap their name on it and it will add to their brand. And for us, it was totally different. That wasn’t my point. For me, when I look at it as a celebrity brand, it’s almost silly to me, because I’m not coming at it from a celebrity standpoint.” (New York Fashion) 

Ashley also said that she thought their success in fashion was because:

“We were able to bring something to the consumers that didn’t exist before, which was really quality affordable clothes for young girls.” (Glamour) 

The Olsens design two fashion lines. The Row being custom made luxe pieces of dark rich colours and fabrics and Elizabeth & James which shows off their hipper younger side. Proving that these girls know how to appeal to a wide range of women. Thinking ahead, they also recently added a line of sunglasses to The Row collection and surely more accessories are sure to follow.

Now the fashionable duo are also teaming up with JC Penney to create a children’s wear line called Olsenboye. Mary-Kate and Ashley used to have a kids clothing line way back when they were kids themselves at Wal-Mart, so this new line shouldn’t be much of a stretch. The Olsen twins want to create something stylish and affordable to tap into a different market than their expensive high end clothing does.

Tags: clothes, elizabeth and james fashion, jc penney, mary kate and ashley olsen, the olsen twins, the row

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Designer Profiles, Fashion News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.