Style twins

MARY-KATE and Ashley Olsen, whom most people know as the diminutive former child stars of Full House and an endless stream of straight-to-video tween movies, are inspecting a rolling rack of crisp white cotton shirts and another one lined with black stretch-leather leggings seemingly sized for miniature gazelles.

The sisters and the clothes are crowded onto an exceedingly unglamorous factory floor in New York’s garment centre. The L-shaped workspace, brightly lit with fluorescent lights, smells vaguely of steam irons and fried rice.

This is the Olsens’ new reality, one that has replaced a childhood lived on Hollywood backlots and an adolescence spent in the glare of the paparazzi. They built a billion-dollar empire on the cult of celebrity and adoring kiddie fans. Now they are creating something else entirely. Against significant odds, they have found grown-up respectability and social purpose in the unforgiving world of high-end fashion with the success of their womenswear brand, The Row.