Actress Gwyneth Paltrow wants to be the next Ralph Lauren with new fashion brand Gwyn

NEW YORK – Earlier in September, as many of her peers were in Los Angeles preparing for the Emmy Awards, American actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow was in New York introducing Gwyn, the reincarnation of her Goop fashion collection G Label, to the world.

It was her first time at New York Fashion Week as a founder, not a front row-er – and a signal that this time she was serious.

Generally, when celebrities start a fashion line and want to prove their design bona fides and win industry acceptance, they go one of two ways.

They can do an Olsen, which is to hide in the background and try to downplay their presence, and thus their fame, as much as possible (which in an inverse way serves to emphasise it).

Or they can do a Beckham: humble themselves before the gatekeepers by getting up close and personal and explaining it all, as if they had been pinning fabric in the studio until late the night before.

Paltrow chose a third, more signature – even performative – way.

She invited everyone into an apartment (actually a lighting showroom set up to look like an apartment), which she had accessorised to look as if it were her apartment. In the dining room, a long table covered with a peach tablecloth was set with Goop-approved nibbles: slices of thin pink prosciutto; a selection of homemade-looking seed and nut bars; even a plate piled with bright yellow mini squash and emerald zucchini with the brand logo, Gwyn, carved in the sides in a brand-type font.

In the living room, a family photo of Paltrow as a child with her parents – director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner – rested on a side table.

There was a rack hung with cotton dry-cleaning bags to suggest that Paltrow had just picked up her dry cleaning (because who doesn’t hang their dry cleaning in their living room?) and scented candles. In an anteroom, a tarot card reader sat by a table strewed with crystals in case anyone was interested.

As for Paltrow, 53, she was tucked away in another room, with the racks of Gwyn and its designer, Sofia Menasse, who came to her lifestyle company Goop from French fashion house Maison Margiela, where she had worked under its then creative director, British fashion designer John Galliano.

Not that the clothes on display had much of a Galliano vibe. Rather, they had more of a Paltrow vibe, which is sort of an old Jil Sander-meets-Theory vibe, in classic shades of navy, slate grey, black, white and camel. Paltrow and Menasse had been working on the rebrand for a year, Paltrow said.

“When I did the first G Label collection, which was tiny, I couldn’t use Goop at all because of a trademark issue,” she explained. “So, I had to quickly think of a different name. G Label was something we just picked quickly, and it has never felt that connected to me or that emotional.”

Gwyn, on the other hand, was her. (Hence the apartment scenario.) Or at least was supposed to be more her.

When she and Menasse are talking about the collection, Paltrow said: “I think, selfishly, a lot about myself. Like where am I going? What do I want to wear? In May, it’s like, ‘Oh, there are a lot of business conferences, or there are art shows, or there are graduations.’”

She added: “I’m not a huge polka-dot person, so it stays pretty true to what I wear.”

As she spoke, Paltrow was wearing a dark grey Gwyn sleeveless dress with a scoop neck, a fitted top and a mid-calf pleated skirt with a dropped waist. Menasse was wearing a long black Gwyn A-line coat (or coat dress or coat worn as dress) that buttoned to the neck with a little collar. Also in the collection: a neat peacoat, cashmere tank tops and sweaters, some lush wide wale corduroys, a leather pencil skirt.

The clothes, made primarily in Italy, range from US$395 (S$510) to about US$1,300 and are available on the Goop website and in Goop stores.

So, would she have a runway show in the future? Paltrow initially demurred. Then she and Menasse looked at each other and together said: “Never say never.”

As for how big she wants Gwyn to be, Paltrow said: “I don’t really think about things in those terms.”

However, she went on: “I think we do something pretty modern in that we make really delicious food and we make cashmere sweaters. I guess Ralph Lauren does that too.

“We’re sort of picking up where they leave off.” NYTIMES