T-Shirt Times

Six months ago, model Kate Moss was photographed in London, allegedly snorting cocaine.

Earlier this month at a Manhattan dinner, fashion folks and assorted famous people were congratulating her on a new Calvin Klein Jeans advertising contract. Although the company will not reveal specifics of the deal, it is reported to be worth around $900,000.

Because of the publicity and police investigation surrounding last fall’s cocaine photos, Moss lost work with H&M and Burberry. She went to rehab. By March, she’d returned to the spotlight, sitting ringside at the Burberry fall 2006 runway show in Milan. Now, she’s back in the Calvin Klein fold. All, apparently, has been quickly forgiven.

The fashion industry has a high tolerance for misbehavior. Naughtiness can be quite lucrative, and although a mea culpa is nice, it is not necessary. A little brush with the law seems only to make for new business opportunities in which the entire industry can participate.

Campbell in the soup

Model Naomi Campbell was arrested March 30 for allegedly assaulting her housekeeper with a cellphone. The housekeeper had a gash on the back of her head that required four staples to close. She said Campbell struck her after a pair of jeans had gone missing.

Campbell has said that she doesn’t know how the housekeeper was injured and that her story of abuse is part of an extortion plot. The model is free on bail and is due back in a Manhattan court June 27.

Here it is worth pointing out that Campbell’s outerwear selection for her March 30 perp walk, while clearly intended to cover a pair of handcuffs, only underscored her reputation for being out of touch with reality. It was a mild spring afternoon and Campbell was wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap and a hip-length white fur poncho with long, thick fringe. It practically shouted "ridiculous wealth."

T-shirts fête the boo-boos

Since Campbell’s arrest, designers have been hard at work finding ways to profit from all this. Chip and Pepper, maker of the vanished jeans, sent out e-mail alerts and created a $30 T-shirt that reads: "Naomi Campbell Hit Me … For My Chip and Pepper Denim." This was not their first:

In 2000, Campbell pleaded guilty in Canada to assaulting a former assistant with a mobile phone. She was accused of the same sort of behavior in 2003, after which Chip and Pepper sold T-shirts reading: "Naomi Campbell Hit Me … And I Loved It."

Back in 2002, when Winona Ryder was on trial for shoplifting from the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue, street peddlers did a brisk business in "Free Winona" T-shirts. The actress wore Marc Jacobs designs for her court appearances. That also happened to be one of the many pricey designer brands she was accused of pinching. She was found guilty. Three months later, Ryder settled into the warm embrace of the fashion industry, starring in Jacobs’ spring 2003 advertising campaign.

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