Kate Hudson: Why Not All Celebrity Brands Are Created Equal

If it seems like there’s a lot of celebrities launching or endorsing stuff right now, you’re not wrong. Just ask Kate Hudson, the Oscar-nominated actress and now successful fashion entrepreneur behind athleisure company Fabletics. “We're in a time where everybody wants to sell something,” she tells Refinery29’s global editor-in-chief and co-founder Christene Barberich on this week’s UnStyled. “It's a great place to make a living; you can endorse products, as an actor, and use your platform. And I’m all for it.”

Skeptics will tell you that some stars don’t seem that invested in whatever they’re selling on the side. “A lot of people don’t want to put the effort in, because it’s a lot of work. And that’s fine too — if you love a product, let everyone else [discover it] … and I’ve been known to do that as well,” Kate says. But the How To Lose a Guy in Ten Days star has learned a lot over her 20 years in the spotlight. “If I’m talking about it, I need to feel good about what I’m doing [and] what I’m putting out there. I owe it to the people that follow me, my fans, that I’m not going to lead them the wrong way.”

And for Hudson, Fabletics (and projects like Happy x Nature, her new collab with New York and Company) has morphed into much more than a side project.

“It’s a full-time job,” she tells Barberich. “It’s a completely hands-on experience, from everything on the site to marketing strategies to talking about language. I like to build. It's fun to be able to put incredibly talented people together and create something and then be able to go talk about it — because it's not just me doing it.”

To be clear, Hudson (who just gave birth to her third child, daughter Rani Rose, back in October) has not retired from acting, and shoots her new film imminently. “[My fashion business] allows me to be with kids, to be home more.”

To hear Christene and Kate's entire chat — including Hudson’s commitment to sustainable and size-inclusive mass-market fashion, her breastfeeding conundrum, and much more, listen to this week’s UnStyled (subscribe via Apple Podcasts).