Country star Taylor Swift, face of l.e.i. jeans, hopes to branch out with line of sundresses

The humor, honesty and everyman appeal of Taylor Swift’s lyrics helped log sales of more than 3 million copies of her debut CD, which is still on Billboard’s Hot Country Album chart after 100 weeks. She wrote or co-wrote every song on that triple-platinum-selling album, as she has on her upcoming CD, “Fearless.”

Now she’s parlaying that hands-on approach into a new line of fashion endorsements.

The 18-year-old country music superstar launched a fashion trend when fans began showing up at her concerts dressed in her signature sundress-and-cowboy-boots style.

“It was awesome. I was so flattered by that. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world,” the singer said in a phone interview.

Since spring, she has been the face of l.e.i. jeans (an acronym for life, energy and intelligence jeans), sold at Wal-Mart.

“When I dress casually and wear what I want, I wear either a really casual dress and leggings or jeans and my favorite T-shirt that has the periodic table of elements on it,” Swift said. She adds her favorite jeans cut is the skinny leg.

Swift said she hopes to soon have her own line of sundresses. “They’ll be really cute, but not that expensive because I don’t want my fans to ever feel like I wear the most expensive clothes, and they can’t relate to that,” she said.

The singer said she enjoys changing her look for magazine shoots and public appearances, but “not to where people don’t recognize you.”

“Every magazine that you do, they want you to have a different look from any other magazines you’ve been seen in. It’s important to abide by that and let stylists do their job and have fun with your look, but you should never change so much that people are like, ‘Whoa! What is that!’”

The singer also has her own fashion doll due out in time for Christmas shopping. Toymaker Jakks Pacific is creating the Taylor Swift collection, which will be dressed in likenesses of memorable dresses and accessories from her best-known videos. The “Picture to Burn” doll will even come with a tiny crystal-covered guitar, according to Playthings.com.