Headlines to hemlines

She hosted the opening festivities for L.A.'s Fashion's Night Out in September and sat in the front row at the Louis Vuitton runway show in Paris last month. Come February, she'll be in our living rooms every week, as a mentor on NBC's new Fashion Star designer competition series.

Is tabloid sensation-turned-designer Nicole Richie poised to become the next big celebrity fashion brand?

Following in the footsteps of Jessica Simpson and Rachel Zoe, Richie, 30 - whose adoptive father is Lionel Richie - launched her House of Harlow 1960 jewelry line in late 2007, adding shoes in 2009 and bags in June 2011. Last spring, she debuted ready-to-wear under the label Winter Kate.

Her designs are an extension of her paparazzi-ready personal style - witchy woman, rock goddess, '60s and '70s vintage princess. The Winter Kate collection ($78 to $700) features fringed velvet kimonos (inspired by vintage pieces Richie has collected for years), firefly-print maxi dresses, silk camisoles, and short-shorts (but not a lot of pants).

House of Harlow 1960 accessories ($195 to $695) include beaded moccasins, velvet booties, pony-skin bags, and jewelry with antler, evil eye, arrow, and stud motifs.

Her labels have received modest attention in fashion bible Women's Wear Daily and in glossy women's magazines. In 2010, she won Entrepreneur of the Year for her House of Harlow 1960 brand at the British Glamour Women of the Year Awards.

"We won the jackpot when we partnered with her," says Rick Cytrynbaum, who co-owns Montreal-based Majestic Mills along with his brother, Brian. The Canadian manufacturing company produces House of Harlow 1960, Winter Kate, and several other labels, including Modern Vintage footwear, Heidi Klum footwear, and Earnest Sewn denim. "She's on the ball. She works with her design team every day."

Cytrynbaum declined to give sales figures, saying instead that Richie's clothing and accessories are available in more than 700 stores in 23 countries. But in this country, at least, they have low visibility in stores, compared with the Zoe and Simpson brands.

Which may be why Richie herself has been more visible over the last few months, wearing her hippie headbands and flowy tops to events and "selling" her earthy Hollywood-mom lifestyle.

Her Los Angeles house - which she shares with husband Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte, and their two kids, Harlow, 3, and Sparrow, 2 - is canyon cool with natural wood floors, a sunken living room, big brick fireplace, kilim rugs, fur throw pillows, a terrarium, and two taxidermy chickens dressed in aristocratic finery.

Nicole Richie landed on the public stage in 2003 at age 21, when she starred with Paris Hilton in the reality show The Simple Life, which chronicled the celebutantes' adventures "roughing it" on an Arkansas farm and other places. Earlier that year, Richie had been arrested for heroin possession and driving with a suspended license.

The show, on TV for five seasons, turned her into a tabloid fixture, known for her boho style, her on-again, off-again friendships with Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Zoe, and her battles with eating disorders and substance abuse, for which she went to rehab.

When it came time for her own label, she started small, partnering with jeweler Pascal Mouawad on her House of Harlow 1960 line of jewelry in 2007, inspired by treasures she found in Thailand, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Footwear was next. Nordstrom started carrying House of Harlow shoes in select stores this season and will expand the offerings to more stores in the spring. Bruce Moynagh, senior shoe buyer for Nordstrom, says, "She's done her homework. She has really keyed in on the must-have silhouettes." He points to the Nelly kiltie lace-up and the Bailey bootie with button details as hot sellers. (The Winter Kate ready-to-wear collection is sold at select Nordstrom stores in addition to online at ShopBop and RevolveClothing.)

Like most celebrities with fashion lines, Richie is more stylist than designer - picking up inspirations from magazine clips, vintage clothes and furnishings, music, and travel, and from her rock-and-roll heroes from the 1960s and '70s, decades she likes because "there was no such thing as clashing." Her staff attends to the design details.

In the next year or so, Richie is hoping to launch a lower-priced apparel collection under the House of Harlow 1960 name. (It is in the mass apparel category that most celebrities hit gold.) She's also finishing her third novel (Richie wakes up at 5:30 or 6 every morning to write) and setting her sights on recording an album. (She sang on last year's rerecording of "We Are the World" and plays the piano, violin, and cello.)

Then there's Fashion Star. Richie, Jessica Simpson, and John Varvatos will be mentoring the designers vying for the attention of retail buyers from H&M, Macy's, and Saks, who will decide whether to produce their pieces.

The show is likely to create a new level of exposure for the Richie brand. "Clearly, we're going to use it as a platform for people to get to know her better and to see her sense of style in a real way each week in their living rooms," Cytrynbaum says. "That translates to her lines as well, although she won't be wearing her designs exclusively on the show."

But will it all add up to a fashion windfall?

"I think so," says Bruce Ross, president and chief executive of Celebrity Fashion group, who works with celebrities, manufacturers, and retailers to build exclusive collections, including the successful label of reality show star and fashion student Lauren Conrad.

Because as much as it is about product and promotion, it's also about personality.

"I have great respect for what she's done and what she's become," Ross says. "Here's someone who has turned her life around, is married, has children and a career. People like a comeback."