Gwen Stefani has big designs

Gwen Stefani had a handful of days free between the Asian and European legs of her concert tour -- and they just happened to be during New York Fashion Week. The window allowed her to schedule what surely will be a standing-room-only runway show of her L.A.M.B. collection today, the first of eight days of spring style previews.

Coincidence?

“I don’t know how it worked out,” said Stefani. “I might have been aware way back when that it was Fashion Week. Music has come first, but I started L.A.M.B. so I’d have a creative outlet after my music career and it’s just taken off. . . . But I would have never done it if I wasn’t going to do it for real.”

It’s that attitude that has given Stefani credibility in the fashion community.

The somewhat jaded editors, stylists and retailers -- who’ve also seen splashy shows by Jennifer Lopez and Sean “Diddy” Combs and have an unfulfilled promise by Beyoncé to put her House of Dereon clothes on the catwalk -- seem to be welcoming Stefani back for her second big gig here with open arms.