Ellen DeGeneres Turns Designer

All these concepts are channeled into the collections that will start modestly enough with a capsule holiday line, then build up to a sprawling portfolio that includes everything from cheerful ceramic plates to playful stationery to rugs, bedding, garden tools, and candles. There will be accessibly priced men’s and women’s clothing that reflects Ellen’s enduringly classic, collegiate style (leavened with dresses that suggest Portia’s understated, feminine sensibility). All will be sold through the E.D. Web site (launching in spring 2015), retail partners (still to be named), and pop-up shops. Ellen’s strategy may not be novel—this is the era of Aerin, Martha, Blake, Gwyneth, after all—but her endgame is ambitious. She envisions nothing less than global brand domination, to reposition herself as the design icon of elevated-lifestyle taste. “When I someday decide to stop doing the show,” she has said, “my entire focus is going to be design.”