spring's leading ladies 2. jovovich-hawk; L.A. confidential: Actress Milla Jovovich teams with Carmen Hawk to create a cool, modern spin on the retro film-noir look.

Byline: Mark Holgate

Stop right there, because we know what you're thinking: Celebrity with fashion aspirations slaps her name on a clothing line; milks said name for all it's worth; and the resulting line of clothing is something you'd never, ever want to wear.

But it would be a great shame if Jovovich-Hawk, the year-old collection from Milla Jovovich, star of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and her best friend and partner-in-crime, Carmen Hawk, were dismissed so easily. Jovovich-Hawk is original, wildly chic, and wonderfully off-kilter; the looks bring to mind a vamp in a film noir of the forties-splashed with plenty of sartorial wisecracks in the screwball-comedy vein.

"We want to set ourselves apart from that typical celebrity, Hollywood thing," says Hawk. "If anything, our clothes have a more European flavor to them."

"We started out because we wanted to make the kinds of things that we would wear," Jovovich adds, "things that have a lot of character."

The Jovovich-Hawk look certainly doesn't lack for that. This spring, it veers from what they call "Depression-era cottons" handcrafted into delicate little shirts to pencil skirts with a little oomph worked into every seam and pinstriped jackets with covered buttons and contrasting stripes under the collars and cuffs.

"What we do is feminine, but not too vulnerable," says Hawk. "The jackets have shoulders. We're not afraid to show the body, but we don't want a woman to feel half-naked."