February 16th, 2011
11:08 AM ET
Jessica Simpson's empire: $750M and countingWhile everyone else was trying to get the goods on Jessica Simpson's dress size, the 30-year-old star was steadily building a profitable fashion line of her own. According to New York magazine, Simpson took in around $750 million in sales last year for her wide array of fashion merchandise, which includes shoes, dresses, denim and coats. Add in a career separates line and a full ready-to-wear collection, which she plans to offer this year, and that total is expected to grow past the $1 billion mark. Last December, she was crowned "fashion's billion dollar baby" by industry publication Women's Wear Daily. To give the number some context, New York says, that means Simpson’s nearly playing in the same sales league as Michael Kors – a reality that takes the 30-year-old by surprise. “I never thought I’d be some fashion mogul!” she told the magazine, and maybe that's because she aimed to keep things simple. “We try not to set trends, but you need your trending pieces in every delivery. But those go fast: What you really need is your basics for every type of person," Simpson explained. "When it comes to other celebrity brands, I think a lot of people do a great job, but it can’t be all about them. Everybody doesn’t want to just look like the celebrity, because they can’t. They just want one element of that style.” Plus, her stuff is pretty affordable. Simpson's contemporary sportswear line that's due out this fall, for example, is expected to have a price range of $39 to $129. "A girl could go to the shopping mall with her mother and she’d have a great new outfit and still have some money left for lunch at McDonald’s," her business manager David Levin told New York of the collection's concept. "She can look like Jessica Simpson, smell like Jessica Simpson, and she can afford it.”
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Some people need to check their spelling.
Everytime one of these stories come up, I see a bunch of people saying things like "Oh well she's laughing all the way to the bank, gotta respect that." No you don't have to respect that. What's to respect? That she made too much money selling crap? That's not admirable.
Woot for crappy clothing made in Mexico or Korea by the lowest bidders
If you like Jessica Simpson then I bet you were disapointed to hear about Nick Lachey's infidelity! http://www.cheaterville.com just launched on Valentines Day! Post about a cheater anonymously for free! Register your name and anyone you know to get e-mail notifications anytime a member makes a post about any name on your list for free! Don't be the last to know!
This is a SERIOUS question. Exactly WHO is this woman? WHY is she famous? I really mean this. It seems like a while ago she just suddenly started to show up in magazines and tabloids. Has she ever actually DONE anything to warrant being famous, or is she just another blond bimbo from reality TV?
It doesn't matter if she's hot, fat, or crazy... this woman is laughing all the way to the bank. Gotta respect that. Moreover, at least you don't read about her every week in the same light as Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, or any of the other ninny-hammers out there. Fair is fair.
Jessica Simpson is no Fashion Mogul. She is a fake and a phony. Fashion moguls are Versace, Michael Kors, Gucci, Loui Vuitton, Tommy HIlfiger, Ralph Lauren, These are all designers. Jessica Simpson is no designer. She just sold her name, that is all. She is not worth 1 billion dollars, she just gets a percentage. The company she sold her name to for `15 million dollars is worth 750 million. Not Jessica Simpson. These cookie cutter reporters need to do their homework. Jessica is so fake. She tells the world she loves her fat body, and then has all of her magazine covers photoshopped, like the new york magazine shots. I will never buy any products from that fat phoney.
I love Jess, I think she is a sweet girl....keep it real Jess and life will be always be wonderful ....especially with this success!
"She can look like Jessica Simpson, smell like Jessica Simpson, and she can afford it.”
Well I dont know if I wanna sell like her.
Well I love her shoes, I have purchased 5 pairs so far. So she must be doing something right for me to buy her product, because I only go for designer things. You did good Jessica, keep it up!
i would like to do Jessica in the butt, and then pull out and give her a dirty sanchez with the tip of my rod! Jackpot!
Folks..remember one thing Jessica doesnt design alone. She has lots of help. Probably 99 percent!
Sad world we live in when we put talent-less, hollywood-made "entertainers" on a pedestal
expecting the world to look up to and emulate them......
I love her style go jes!
seriously, tomic couldn't manage a freaking garage sale..what an idiot
you'd better hope she doesn't cash her profit check before you get done shopping and beat you to mickey d's...you will have to wait for delivery truck to bring more food.
after you buy your oufit..you can head to an open field and graze!!
Haha so Jessica simpson budgeted mcdonalds into her clothes purchase haha her fat face tells it all, way to jump ship early nick money isn't worth the pounds
She should fire her publicist he is an idiot,since is already idiot,she needs someone with a brain.
Guess you can call her what you want but at the end of the day, she's doing better than you, huh! Whose got the last laugh.
I thought I had it made with a salary of $230,000 a year, this woman has single handedly rocked the fashion world. Poor Nick Lachey, I bet he's pooping his pants right about now...LOL
Ok ppl, Jessica is not fat by any means and I'm certain everyones boyfriends would leave u for her in a flash. She may play a dumb blonde and we laugh at her, but the only one whose laughing is Jess, laughing all the way to the bank. BTW, he shoe line is fab!!! I own a bunch of pairs 🙂
Jessica you can let them laugh @ your all they want......just laugh @ them back alllllllllllll the way to the bank.
Obama should go after Jessica Simpson with that money she can get us out of the nations debt
she sees hateful comments and cries a little...but her tissues made out of $100 bills do a great job. Jessica 1 Haters 0
um....i love your shoes, that is all 🙂
This world is so unfair. If I didn't have kids I'd make a quiet exit off.
Bet Nick is kicking himself in the @$$ now LOL, you go gurl
Someone kill me.
Shes not fat anymore.a healthy size 5again..
Im 33 and love her clothes and shoes... thanks jessica i respect her she has been through alot and still standin god bless
Pretty good haul for a girl who usually looks like 9 miles of bad road.
5% of a billion dollars is still 50 million dollars, not too shabby!
I'd do her
Would that be a community collage or an online collage?...good luck with your appeal. Anyone up for spelling lessons? Maybe Ms Simpson can start an online tutorial business.
hey tally you forgot a one in front of that 4
BBW
Would have been an even larger sales figure if her optical line were sold to retailers online! What's up with that?
Not bad for a fat chick !
And people think Jessica Simpson is stupid. Where are their billion dollar fashion empires or their movie roles, singing careers, and ads on TV?
I saw some of her stuff at a store. Do they come in womens sizes?
Just wondering if she would like to share a little of that money. I could use about $63,000 to pay off bills and some students loans so my husband could go back to collage and get his Masters in Education. My address is
10329 Mayo Trail
Catlettsburg, KY 41129
Or if any one else would like to help it would be greatly appreciated
Best looking fat girl ever !!!!
And just to clarify before the attacks start, I have 3 kids and am a size 4. I have image issues. I am educated, have a good job and own a home. I do not live in my mother's basement and I have a life. I just have a guilty pleasure in celebrity gossip and celebrity blogs. 🙂
Did you really have to state your size? Way to back up a point. Hope you don't have any girls to teach self loathing to.
She's actually quite a lovely person with a genuine heart. More that can be said about a good majority of the population. She's still very pretty and fashionable and anyone who says other wise must have body image issues of their own. She's not obese or even fat. She is healthy. She doesn't want to give a sickly image. What's wrong with that?
Boy I can't wait to see her next reality show, cash for Hummers, she's quite the humanitarian.
dont be mean to my sister. she is super nice. at least she doesnt play that aggravating saxhone like Lisa. Our dad Homer says he wont share his beer with you if you arevnean to us. BTW barnie gumble says hey.I
Boy I can't wait for her next reality show, Cash for Hummers. She's such an humanitarian.
Too bad all that money is going to China, Pakistan, Ecuador, Belize or Vietnamese slave labor and doing nothing for the unemployed here in the states.
Bingo.
Way to go Jessica. Sure she may be a little more plump than she used to be, but she still looks amazing. Growing a fashion business that big takes some skill and hard work. She is not as dumb as people always say she is, and she is proving that by growing a huge fashion empire.
Dang Jessica, let me have like...5 Million bucks. You wont even notice its gone.
Jessica Simpson seems to appeal to the "Wal-Mart crowd."
I had no clue that O.J.'S daughter was this artistic and savy...does she have a mens glove line?
Fat chicks need clothes too. Jessica sells her clothing by the acre, so that's why she's making so much $$$.
if u buy an outfit by her than go to mcdonalds ?? this is a clear statement why are economy if mest up ...
and still have lunch at mcdonalds ???!!!! what a greedy woman
Smart girl!!!...I believe one day my empire will reach the billion dollar mark!!
Wow! They can still have money left for McDonald's, because McDonald's is so expensive right? I like Jessica and her clothing but that has to be the worst analogy I've ever heard in my life.
I think she's awesome, investing her money to make more money, she's smart. Just think at all the celebrities that had the same chance and blew it.
Keep eating at McDonalds and you will look and smell like her.
Never really under stood the "american people's obession" with making rich people-more rich.Nothing wrong with purchasing "needy,affordable stuff" but to get caught up in" hysterical" atmosphere of the "trend"-I suppose is the
"American thing".
She better be smart enough to get a pre-nup before she marries this new guy.
i think jennifer is doing a good job. people for some reason like to take shots at her for whatever reason and why. But you know at the end of the day her bank account has millions. what does your have.......take that anyway you like.
"Jessica" not Jennifer
Make that Kudos to Jessica!!
Cudos to Jessica! You go girl!!
This makes me sick! But still, awesome for a lil' blond bimbo moron (Romo is hatin it!). Some might say, "crazy like a fox"...I say "Dumb and LUCKY". I'm sure after all her "people" & the IRS got their share she still made $150 MILL-ION! DOLLARS!
I'm shocked as I thought her career was over. As a native Southerner, don't discount the power of tweens shopping at Wal-Mart. And that last bit about McDonald's was a typical NE New Yorker "jab" at the so-called "ingnorant South". Jess, you did get the last laugh after. As someone who greatly discounted you, bravo!
~RS
Haters going to Hate
Lol
Before we crown her queen, remember this is gross sales, not profit. With maybe a margin of 5% on a good year and other investors to pay off, she's no billionaire by a long shot.
That being said, she could at least put that money towards a trainer. Remember when she was hot?
Prob clears closer to 12-15%, but even if she was missing the target margin and only pulled 5%, she's still turning just shy of 19 MILLION bucks (if she hits 12%, it'd be close to 45 million) before she's thirty. Pretty damn impressive. I don't question that she's not the smartest person in the room sometimes, but she's smart enough to know something that's worth 18 some-odd million more than I. Unless Mr. Buffett( Warren or Jimmy) or the like decide to pop a comment here on CNN, she knows "something" most of us would do well to learn.
The only thing she "knows" is her celebrity status. It doesn't take much intellectual ability to use that fact and hire ppl to use your name and profit from it.
I just farted. Shooooo : )
That was more engaging than the article, gotta give ya that
Regardless if she is lacking on the teeth hygiene front and if she is more scurvy these days, she is laughing all the way to the bank. She's one of the few celebrities that has actually done something productive with herself and added value to the economy.
Way to go, Jessica! Keep going, going and going!
All this from someone who admits she doesn't brush her teeth ... yuck!!
“She can look like Jessica Simpson, smell like Jessica Simpson, and eat tons of McDonald's like Jessica Simpson"
thats great! now she can get those wheels off her trailer and set it up on blocks. who knows maybe she can even put a plywood skirt around the bottom.you go girl!
Ending this article with "and still have some money left for lunch at McDonald’s" kind of ruined it for me... but good for Jess. She's so garsh darn cute. I have a dress by her and some shoes that I love!
@Timme62 what a jerk. The fact of the matter is Jessica is hot. She looks better than 90% of the population and 90% of all men would love to have a change at her.
@Tiffany H "She looks better than 90% of the population and 90% of all men would love to have a change at her."
1)90% population of witch country?
2)90% of all men living IN YOUR house.. Right?
Who knew she'd create an empire. I say 'you go girl'. And donate...donate...donate.
Well sweetheart have at her. Personal opinion is just that personal.
If someone buys Simpsons clothing and then goes to McDonalds afterwards, I guess that yes they too will look like Simpson.
Ashford & Simpson?
C.S.
She is kinda trampy in my opinion. I heard she is dating Millhouse.
I'm certain OJ Simpson did it.
Her brother Bart really is the talent of the family. He is a very tallented young actor and comedian. Looking forward to see him in more leading roles.
Everyone brags on the Jackson family and how wonderful they are. Michael and Janet Jackson are nobodys compared to ths SImpsons. Homer. Marge, Bart, Maggie, Jessica, Lisa, and Ashley bare AWESOME !
Her brother Bart is soooo funny ! Plus that Homer SImpson ! Her dad Homer is my hero ! He is THE BEST !
Simpsonite?
C.S.
Damn, I'm banged up! Anyone read the articles on me today?
MMM...DinnerTime!!
First off, congrats to Jess...I tapped dat and ooohh-wee – dat is nice
C.S.
By the way she is not fat. She is just really, really short. Basically an average size midget.
C.S.
Anyone got a smoke?
C.s.
Standard issue blonde dude..no bragging necessary. I've seen hotter women walking around the mall.