Celebrity endorsements: Who really benefits?

It's very popular now for celebrities to 'create' lines for high street retailers. Off the top of my head - Lana Del Ray - H&M, Kelly Brook - New Look, Kim Kardashion - Dorothy Perkins, Kate Moss - Topshop - spring to mind.

The lines get released and they sell-out like Oasis tickets.

What I want to know is who really benefits from these collaborations?

The customer, for example, is currently spending less due to the current climate so can they really validate paying an extra £20 or so per item to have it 'designed' by a popular celebrity? Not to mention the lossy quality of these so-called special edition items due to the reduction of production costs...

Then take the actual clothing retailers... they have to put in a bid for that celebrity and offer them a rather large sum of money to even be considered. Not only that but you have to account for production costs and extra staffing as, to be fair, these so-called celebrities don't design the line - they choose from a selection shown to them by a designer. Taking all this into consideration - are the retailers even making much money from these one off lines?

Then we have the celebrity, the person who already has a small (or most likely large) fortune chilling in their bank account, who strolls in, picks a few clothes they like, then models them in a photoshoot and walks away with millions of pounds.

But yeah, the customer totally benefits.

I think you know something isn't right when the company doesn't seem to gain as much as they should. However, that's just my personal opinion.

Are you prepared to pay over-the-odds for high street labels to have celebrity names attached to them? 

Do you think high street labels should stick to their own brand?

I'd love to hear your opinions