Olsen fashion sense means double trouble
The featherweight, filthy rich twin tycoons are known to teeter on city streets accessorized with oversized sunglasses, fur coats and Starbucks coffee cups.
They are, strangely enough, among the most influential women in fashion.
At 22, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen co-own a global branding empire, and have separately dated movie stars, a Greek shipping heir and Lance Armstrong. Mary-Kate made headlines for her past rehab stint for an eating disorder and her involvement in the tragic death of close friend Heath Ledger.
Despite their uncommon lives, Mary-Kate insists, “We’re like everyone else.”
She delivered that colossal understatement while sitting next to fraternal twin Ashley on Oprah Winfrey’s TV studio sofa, where the sisters promoted their new coffee table book, “Influence,” a tribute to the artists, designers and other creative people who have inspired them.
“I think we work hard every single day,” said Mary-Kate.
But it’s their thrown-together-yet-carefully-curated look that has established the twins as among the most daring women in fashion, earning them the admiration of designers from Michael Kors to Diane Von Furstenberg.
“Influence” features their interviews with Von Furstenberg, Karl Lagerfeld, Francisco Costa, Richard Prince and Lauren Hutton. The sisters also devote pages to each other in a scrapbook-style photo spread and a Proust questionnaire.
Chanel designer Lagerfeld, who is unintentionally hilarious, tells the 5-foot, 1-inch sisters in his Q&A that he thought they were shorter.
Von Furstenberg, who started a fashion craze with her signature wrap dress, says she morphed into a brand before she knew it, aiming to be “a woman who didn’t need for the man to decide.” Joking about her early life in Manhattan, quirky former model and actress Hutton says, “One of my goddaughters says I invented online dating. It was like that, except it wasn’t on a computer. You talk to someone for a few minutes and then blow ’em off.”
“I hope (the book) influences everyone, any age, to do something that you’re passionate about,” Ashley said on Winfrey’s show.
Mary-Kate and Ashley have been working since they were babies, debuting at 9 months old in the dual role of Michelle Tanner on the ABC sitcom “Full House.”
They parlayed their celebrity into a reportedly billion-dollar international brand, marketing clothing, furniture and other merchandise to the ’tween set.
The birthday bunch
Singer Mary Travers is 72. Actor Charlie Robinson (“Night Court”) is 63. Actor Robert David Hall (“CSI”) is 60. Actor Lou Ferrigno (“The Incredible Hulk”) is 56. Drummer Dee Plakas of L7 is 48. Rapper Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa is 39. Rapper Scarface of Geto Boys is 39. Musician Susan Tedeschi is 38. Actor Eric Dane (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 36. Singer Nick Lachey is 35. Actress Nikki Blonsky (“Hairspray”) is 20.