the new fashion designers

Hello, I'm Amber and you're listening to bbclearningenglish.com
　　In Entertainment today, we find out why pop stars are the new fashion
　　designers – in other words, why there's a trend for pop stars to start their own
　　clothing labels or brands. For example, the drummer with the chart-topping
　　band The Arctic Monkeys has just launched a line of leisure wear, and this
　　follows designs launched by Madonna a short while ago.
　　Here's the first part of an interview with Lisa Armstrong, the fashion editor of
　　the Times newspaper. She says this trend is an obvious, 'a blatant', move by
　　pop stars to make money! But it's also an attempt, 'a stab', at staying famous
　　for longer! 'To get a bit of longevity' – 'longevity' here means the length of
　　someone's career. And for the model Kate Moss, launching her own clothing
　　label is a sensible next move, it's 'a logical step'.
　　As you listen, try to catch the expression Lisa uses to describe how the stars of
　　today are smarter than pop musicians in the 90s - when it comes to making
　　money from fashion - because they are marketing their own designs, not those
　　of big, established designers.
　　Lisa Armstrong
　　'Yeah, I mean, it's clearly a blatant attempt to make money – why not?! But I think also, for
　　some of them, it's a stab to get a bit of longevity, you know, careers are very short, and for
　　someone like Kate Moss, in particular, it's a logical step. I think also in the '90s, musicians
　　traditionally got friendly with Versace or Armani – got free clothes, sat in the front row – now
　　they're just cutting out the middle-man!'
　　Amber:  Did you catch it? Lisa says that pop stars today are 'cutting out the middle-
　　man' – they are marketing their clothes directly to their audiences. To cut out
　　the middle-man. Listen again.
　　Lisa Armstrong
　　'Yeah, I mean, it's clearly a blatant attempt to make money – why not?! But I think also, for
　　some of them, it's a stab to get a bit of longevity, you know, careers are very short, and for
　　someone like Kate Moss, in particular, it's a logical step. I think also in the '90s, musicians
　　traditionally got friendly with Versace or Armani – got free clothes, sat in the front row – now
　　they're just cutting out the middle-man!'
　　Amber:  Next, Lisa talks about Madonna's range of clothes for the high-street store H &
　　M. She isn't impressed – she says the range was 'a bit of a flop', a bit of a
　　failure. She says what fans wanted was the outrageous, the 'camp', kind of
　　clothes that Madonna wore on stage – 'conical bras', for example, bras shaped
　　like ice-cream cones! But according to Lisa, the clothes were 'period', a polite
　　way of saying old-fashioned! They were 'mum-sy', they were like the kind of
　　safe, frumpy clothes a mother, who was not fashion-conscious, would wear.
　　Listen.
　　Lisa Armstrong
　　'I think when it doesn't work … I mean, Madonna's line for H & M was a bit of a flop
　　because we wanted conical bras, we wanted all that camp, fabulous Madonna, and what we
　　actually got was late, period, mum-sy Madonna, and that doesn't tie in with the H & M
　　customer.'