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Sarah Jessica Parker created Bitten, a fashionable and affordable clothing line for women.

Posted September 3, 2008 by Audrey Turcot with Tommi Lewis Tilden

As if being a mom and famous weren't enough to juggle, some stars take it on their skinny little shoulders to go into business, too.

While it's got to be easier to launch, say, an eco-friendly baby wash line when you're well-known, a lot of celebrities are doing more than just slapping their monikers on brands, they're sticking with their passions and working with what they know.

James Wilke's mom, Sarah Jessica Parker, made a big splash last year with her easy-on-the-wallet clothing line, Bitten.  Produced exclusively for Steve & Barry's stores, the famed fashionista, who has a hand in designing most pieces, says that her manifesto is "It is every woman's inalienable right to have a pulled-together, stylish confident wardrobe with money left over to live."

Parker, who grew up as one of eight children and wore her sister's hand-me-downs, told People: "[Bitten] is a way of giving women without financial means access to good, simple, well-made clothes to feel proud of."

In 1990, Flynn and Cy's mom, supermodel Elle Macpherson, launched a lingerie line called Intimates in her native Australia and the delicately feminine bras, panties, and camisoles have become the best-selling brand down under.

The 44-year-old beauty also has a line of skincare products that boasts her nickname "The Body." "[It] fits with what I've done with my lingerie business, which is to celebrate women's femininity," MacPherson said in Easy Living Magazine about her line of exfoliates, bath products and makeup.

"I see myself as the consumer," MacPherson told the UK Telegraph. "I'm a working mother and I don't get a lot of time to myself."

Christy Turlington, another top model from MacPherson's era and busy working mom of two with husband actor Ed Burns, helped found Sundari, an ayurvedic skin care company, and two clothing lines produced by Puma: Nuala, an active women's clothing line and Mahanuala, a women's yoga wear line.

"It was important for me to make clothes that transcended the boundaries of the workplace and working out, the external and internal experiences, travel and home life," Turlington told Psychology Today. An NYU graduate (she holds a B.A. degree with a concentration in Comparative Religion and Eastern Philosophy), Turlington says she designed her collection for her lifestyle and found "that many women were also searching for the same thing."

Gwen Stefani, who recently welcomed second son, Zuma, turned a zeal for design into her distinctive L.A.M.B. line.  Raised in a family of seamstresses, Stefani launched the eclectic collection in 2004 and the combination of Guatemalan, Japanese and Jamaican styles was so popular with the Haute Couture set that the following year she expanded her collection with the less expensive Harajuku Lovers line. And, in 2007, the eponymous first L.A.M.B. fragrance debuted with much ballyhoo.

Of course, many a star has done the simpler perfume thing -- lending her name and, sometimes, nose, to a cosmetics giant -- and moms like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears and Celine Dion are no exception. But, why is it a good fit?  What makes a famous person a good perfume promoter?

"People are looking for a lifestyle, whether it's sunglasses or a car or a bottle of perfume, and celebrity endorsements are part of that lifestyle that's being offered. In part, it's being aware of who people aspire to want to be like," says Plymouth Business School's Dr. Tony Curtis. "Collaborating with a celebrity effectively enables the company to buy into the celebrity's franchise, to capitalize upon an existing brand and reduce the risk."

But, a star-stamped fragrance doesn't necessarily smell so sweet ... "It has to be a totally integrated mix," continues Curtis. "The package, the [scent], the message, and the halo of celebrity endorsement, they all have to be right."

Which is probably why Donald Trump's failed 2004 cologne launch "Trump: The Fragrance" fast became a clearance item and gag gift. Sorry, Donald, your scent was fired.