Gwen Stefani kicks off New York Fashion Week

Gwen Stefani to kick off New York Fashion Week with L.A.M.B runway show

Gwen Stefani is set to add pop star power to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week by showing her own range, L.A.M.B, on the first night of the prestigious event.

The uber-cool 37-year-old will snatch a few days break between the Asian and European legs of her concert tour to show the line, which has been described as a 'combination of Jamaican rastafarians, English school girls and Orange County teens'.

So, did Gwen deliberately book off that small window of time to show her line?

'I don't know how it worked out,' Stefani tells The LA Times. 'I might have been aware way back when that it was Fashion Week. Music has come first, but I started L.A.M.B. so I'd have a creative outlet after my music career and it's just taken off... But I would have never done it if I wasn't going to do it for real.'

It's this genuine passion and in-built feel for fashion that has helped Gwen to be taken seriously by the industry that often dismisses other celebrity would-be designers at first stitch.

'We think Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. collection is a terrific kick-off to the first evening of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week,' says Fern Mallis, senior vice president of IMG Fashion, which organizes the event. 'As more and more celebrities enter the fashion industry we see a great synergy and energy ... the L.A.M.B. line is clearly at the top of these lines and is as unique and individual as Gwen herself.'

Stefani says of the range: 'I make the clothes for myself, clothes I'd want to wear. I want clothes that have quality and style.'

And, she says, she couldn't do it without her stylist sidekick Andrea Lieberman, who she met on the set of an Eve video years ago. 'It just clicked. I found someone who got me. She grew up in New York and knows fashion. I went to the mall when I was young. She fills in my gaps.'

L.A.M.B will show tomorrow, in the first of eight days of spring/summer 08 previews.