Is the new era of celebrity lifestyle brands actually more about you?

All of us want to be like celebrities.

And okay, well, that’s not entirely true. But we do have favourite celebrities, and we look to those certain celebrities for style inspiration, and we all have weird allegiances to actors and musicians that lead to us buying their nail polish, makeup, and/or clothing lines because we’ve been told that stars are just like us. (Or, that dressing in the pieces stars have designed make them just like us.)

But over the past few years, we’ve seen a shift. While celebs like Kim Kardashian, Jessica Simpson and Sarah Jessica Parker boast fashion lines that channel their distinctive senses of self, the proliferation of new celeb-driven lifestyle brands are eclipsing them. That’s because where fashion lines allude to a “dress the way I do” way of shopping (or dressing), lifestyle brands seem like an invitation. Like: buy this candle, and we’ll be friends.

Of course, that sounds insane. But with the advent of Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James, celebrity lifestyle endeavours seem like the equivalent of shopping with a friend, not just copying their wardrobe. Lifestyle brands—with their curated collections, designer collaborations, and original pieces that evoke, say, the Southern Charm of a certain Reese Witherspoon—-still leave enough room for you to be yourself. On the other hand, pieces designed by a celebrity and based on said celebrity evoke the same sentiment as the Plastics dictate in Mean Girls: on Wednesdays we wear pink (there are rules, after all), and only Regina can wear gold hoop earrings.

Celebrity lines have been a great way for us to cultivate the style vibes of the famouses we look up to. Whether via Cara for DKNY, Alexa Chung for Madewell, or even Drake’s OVO merch, they’re a means of paying homage to celebrities we like and inspiring our own senses of style. But, they still send a pretty big message: dress the way I do, and represent me and only me, thank you.

Lifestyle brands take a step back. And while in some cases they’re obviously intended for the clones of said celebrity (here’s looking at you, Goop), collections by the likes of Lauren Conrad act like fancy garage sales. They send the message of, “Here are the things I like, and now you can have them, too—if you want.”

Are lifestyle brands still a money grab? Of course. Do they promote a very similar mentality that most celebrity lines champion? Naturally. (See: buy this because I’m famous and I say so.) But the thing is, we wouldn’t care about a “lifestyle brand” that wasn’t curated by a celebrity, anyway. That is just called Pinterest, and it is fun for three minutes before you realize that nobody should care that much about mason jars.

The truth is, we’re all going to keep caring about the products celebrities hawk or the pieces they wear, design, or curate, but lifestyle brands allow for the illusion of choice. Like, maybe we’re buying one of Ellen Degeneres’s candles because we like that one, very expensive candle. Maybe we’re browsing Draper James because we need a tote and might as well buy one of Reese Witherspoon’s a.k.a. my best friend’s. Maybe we’re on Life + Times because it’s what Beyonce would do.

Ultimately, lifestyle brands gives us the comfort of thinking we’re the captains by making us think that we’re not as attached to our favourite celebrities as we are. Of course, that’s not true. But it sure feels better to buy Jessica Alba-sanctioned hand sanitizer than it does a Material Girl sweatshirt that goes with nothing I own.

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