Happy 10th Anniversary to Jessica Simpson's Fashion Line!

Wow, time goes by really fast, doesn’t it? It was a decade ago that Jessica Simpson, American cultural icon, first launched her namesake clothing line, enabling us all to wear slightly platformed peep-toe pumps in varying shades of patent, and to stand tall among giants.

Since that day, the collection has transformed its footwear, clothing, and fragrance lines into a $1 billion business, with no signs of slowing down as it expands its offerings into activewear (code name: athleisure). “A lot of people are afraid to listen [to their instinct] because a dream of [theirs] could be too big and it seems too big to attain,” Simpson told WWD, who interviewed her to commemorate this important milestone. “I don’t believe any dream is too big. There are always more dreams to have and I feel that if you look at life that way, nothing will ever seem like a failure.”

The year 2005, in retrospect, seems like a rough time to have been alive fashionally speaking—I recall baggy cargo capris and embroidered bootcut jeans in impossible washes and camisole tops that gathered under the bust and flared out to emphasize their gauzy floral prints, inevitably in a variation of turquoise. But through the years, these silhouettes evolved into cleaner lines and better choices on the Pantone spectrum.

In 2007, Simpson held a fashion show at Miami Swim Fashion Week. The maillot at right is a lasting look, minus the large belt that was popular around ‘05 (and is coming back), though the Music Man ensemble at left has, sorry to say, not endured.

Kim Kardashian sat front row. Wow, time really goes fast, doesn’t it?

Here’s what was going on in Simpson’s shoe zone in the late ‘00s; 2007 at left, 2009 at right.

In 2010, she launched a jeanswear line. Look at those varying washes of butt whisker.

As recently as last year, Simpson had ramped it up. Here are looks from the runway show she held last fall at the Nordstrom in the Grove, the outdoor Los Angeles shopping mall where you will meet your future spouse. Here you can see what has made her collection so successful: she has hit midrange, lower price point items in styles that aren’t too risky and have proven themselves as trends that last a few years in many places in America, including the inclusion of a floppy hat, which is the true manifestation of the devil. I would wear that sweater on the right, though, probably.