Ms. Keefe had previously designed printed linen handkerchiefs.
And yet, unlike Kmart's deal to have Ms. Stewart design linens, kitchenware and other goods, Penney is not giving Ms. Madden exclusive domain.
The linen, designed by Simone Prouvé, Jean Prouvé's daughter, is neither room divider nor shade; it is just there to amuse.
What we all really want, it seems, is cool stuff spun off from music - video games like Guitar Hero, Wii consoles with joystick saxophones, bed linen designed by Kylie or booze bearing the imprimatur of a rapper.
They recently entered the hospitality sector, designing lighting, linens, chairs and wallpaper at the House at Hautefage retreat in Bordeaux.
Upstairs, under a photograph by Cindy Sherman, a thumbnail-size book, "The Big Idea," by the novelist A.M. Homes, sits on the bed linens designed by the R.W. Kitchen Studio.
The hitatare, the formal court robe of samurai, and the suo, a crested linen robe designed for everyday wear, were characterized by V-shaped necklines accentuated by inner-robe neckbands of white.
The loftlike space, designed by the "It" designer Ryan Korban with linen walls and custom furniture, will stock the company's carefree designs: breezy silk tops, light sweaters and lace dresses.
One 17th-century French architect opted not to include bathrooms in the chateaus he designed, since "our usage of linen," he wrote, "serves to keep the body clean more conveniently than the baths and vapor baths of the ancients could do".
Ms. Johnson has also designed a set of luxury linens carrying the Salamander name.
