Fashion Style

You worked really closely with Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port on 'The City' and 'The Hills'. Do you keep in touch with them?
Kelly: I keep in touch with Whitney a lot. I mean Lauren, when I see her we talk and stuff but we were never… like she would never call me and spend holidays at my house, Whitney does. I’m really close to Whitney.
We hear you’re launching your own fashion line?
Kelly: I am – I’m doing a new brand with Chris Burch we’re starting a brand called the Electric Love Army which I’m really excited about.
MTV: How has that transition been for you? Going from PR to the other side?
Kelly: Well, I’ve been doing it for 20 years… and we’re constantly styling and also working on a bunch of collections where people are spending anything from $250,000 to $1 million to make them, and we're watching what works and what doesn’t. So it’s kind of like working in an amazing horse track. After a while you kind of know how to breed the horse, how to find the right jockey and how to make it run.
I had to start making brands - I can’t just sit there and know all this and not spin it. My whole thing is, I want to strip the walls of the fashion world down and bring it to the masses. I don’t like the fact it’s an art form that people are not always welcome in. I want girls to be able to go in and feel good about themselves and feel really empowered and not have to be some granola indigo girl.
So ‘Jersey Shore’…
Kelly: Jersey Shore!!? I rode in a jeep with The Situation to the MTV awards… it was me, Whitney and The Situation and Frankie [from 'The Hills'] and it was pretty funny!

What do you think of their whole style sense? You know, rocking the whole Ed Hardy look, the bling…
Kelly: I bet they’re not now! I bet J-Woww and Snooki are rocking the Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga at this point...
Define success…
Kelly: Knowing that you’ve done your best, between 88% and 100% and that you’ve given whatever you're doing your best and you’ve brought as much of yourself as possible with what you have to work with. That’s my measure for motherhood, as a manager, and an author. You can’t do one thing the way you would do eight things; your measurements have to change but if you’ve done your best, give or take, you’re allowed a couple of bad days of bad behavior. I kind of look at it like a bank deposit, you know, you’ve got to take a few withdrawals and you can do it on a weekly basis, as long as you make more deposits. [laughs]
What’s next?
Well I’ve got my new book which I think is spot on for the times — it covers fashion, human rights, women. Then on April 18 I’m shooting a new pilot for MTV, and I’ve been executive producing a series on E! [The Fashion District]. And my line with Electric Love Army comesout in 2012. So yeah, there’s a lot going on!