Social:It girl

From HandWiki
Short description: Term for a beautiful, stylish young woman who possesses sex appeal without flaunting her sexuality


Poster for the film "It" (1927)

An "it girl" is an attractive young woman, generally a celebrity, who is perceived to have both sex appeal and a personality that is especially engaging.[1]

The expression it girl originated in British upper-class society around the turn of the 20th century.[2] It gained further attention in 1927 with the popularity of the Paramount Studios film "It", starring Clara Bow. In the earlier usage, a woman was especially perceived as an it girl if she had achieved a high level of popularity without flaunting her sexuality. Today, the term is used more to apply simply to fame and beauty. The Oxford English Dictionary distinguishes between the chiefly American usage of "a glamorous, vivacious, or sexually attractive actress, model, etc.", and the chiefly British usage of "a young, rich woman who has achieved celebrity because of her socialite lifestyle".[3]

The male version of an "it girl" is an "it boy".

Early use

An early literary usage of it in this sense is found in to a 1904 short story by Rudyard Kipling, which contains the line "'Tisn't beauty, so to speak, nor good talk necessarily. It's just It. Some women'll stay in a man's memory if they once walk down a street."[4][5]

Elinor Glyn, the notorious British novelist who wrote the book titled It and its subsequent screenplay, lectured:

With It, you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man. It can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction.

Glyn first rose to fame as the author of the scandalous 1907 bestseller Three Weeks. She is widely credited with the invention of the "It Girl" concept: although the slang predates her book and film, she was responsible for the term's impact on the culture of the 1920s.

Clara Bow later said she wasn't sure what "It" meant,[6] although she identified Lana Turner[6] and later Marilyn Monroe[7] as "It Girls", and Robert Mitchum as an "It Man".[6]

The fashion component of the It Girl originated with Elinor Glyn's elder sister, the celebrated couturier Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, known professionally as "Lucile". Lucile managed exclusive salons in London, Paris and New York, was the first designer to present her collections on a stage complete with the theatrical accoutrements of lights and music (inspiring the modern runway or catwalk show), and was famous for making sexuality an aspect of fashion through her provocative lingerie and lingerie-inspired clothes.[8][9] She also specialised in dressing trendsetting stage and film performers, ranging from the stars of the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway to silent screen icons such as Mary Pickford and Irene Castle.

As early as 1917, Lucile herself used the term It in relation to style in her fashion column for Harper's Bazaar: "... I saw a very ladylike and well-bred friend of mine in her newest Parisian frock ... she felt she was 'it' and perfectly happy."[10][11]

"It" (1927 film)

The Paramount Studios film was planned as a special showcase for its popular star Clara Bow, and her spectacular performance[12] introduced the term "It" to the cultural lexicon. The film plays with the notion that "It" is a quality which eschews definitions and categories; consequently, the girl portrayed by Bow is an amalgam of an ingenue and a femme fatale, with a touch of Madonna's latter day "Material Girl" incarnation. By contrast, Bow's rival in the script is equally young and comely (and rich and well-bred to boot), yet she doesn't have "It".

Modern "it girls"

Since the 1980s, It Girl or It-Girl has been used slightly differently, referring to a wealthy, normally unemployed, young woman who is pictured in tabloids going to many parties often in the company of other celebrities, receiving media coverage in spite of no real personal achievements or TV hosting / presenting. The writer William Donaldson observed that, having initially been coined in the 1920s, the term was applied in the 1990s to describe "a young woman of noticeable 'sex appeal' who occupied herself by shoe shopping and party-going".[13]

The prominence of an "It Girl" is often temporary; some of the rising It Girls will either become fully-fledged celebrities, commonly initially via appearances on reality TV shows or series; lacking such an accelerant, their popularity will normally fade.

Examples

  • Evelyn Nesbit (1884 or 1885–1967), American artists' model, photographic model, chorus girl, and silent film actress, whose rise to fame around 1900 has been called "the birth of the "It Girl".[14]
  • Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971), American actress, model, and Andy Warhol's muse, was dubbed the "It Girl".[15]
  • Tamara Beckwith (b. 1970), English socialite and television personality, was widely described as an "It Girl" in the 1990s.[16][17]
  • Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (1971–2017), English socialite and television personality, was considered to be the foremost of the 1990s "It Girls" in the United Kingdom .[17]
  • Chloë Sevigny (b. 1974), American actress and model, was described as an "It Girl" by Jay McInerney in The New Yorker in 1994, because of her status as a fashion impresario.[18]
  • Sara Schätzl (b. 1987), German writer and actress, was labelled an "It Girl" by the German tabloid press in the late 2000s.[19][20]
  • Jessi (b. 1988), Korean-American rapper, singer and songwriter, is considered an "It Girl" by French publication Elle.[21]
  • Rola (b. 1990), Japanese model and actress, is considered an "It Girl" by Japanese newspaper The Japan Times.[22]
  • Jisoo (b. 1995), South Korean singer of the girl group Blackpink, and actress, is considered an "It Girl" by Elle.[23]
  • Jennie (b. 1996), South Korean singer and rapper of Blackpink, is considered an "It Girl" by French publication L'Officiel.[24]

Gallery

  • Evelyn Nesbit

  • Tamara Beckwith

  • Tara Palmer-Tomkinson

  • Chloë Sevigny

  • Sara Schätzl

  • Jessi

  • Rola

  • Jisoo

  • Jennie

Film and theater

  • Glyn's 1927 film script was adapted into a musical called The It Girl, which opened off-Broadway in 2001 at the York Theatre Company, starring Jean Louisa Kelly.[25]
  • It Girls is a 2002 feature documentary film directed by Robin Melanie Leacock, which chronicles the activities of a group of socialites in Manhattan during New York Fashion Week.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "It girl". It girl. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/it-girl?s=t. Retrieved June 19, 2018. 
  2. ↑ Etherington-Smith, Meredith & Pilcher, Jeremy. (1986). The 'It' Girls, 241.
  3. ↑ It girl, n. (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press, September 2005, http://oed.com/search?searchType=dictionary&q=It+girl%2C+n.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ↑ Kipling, Rudyard (1904). "Mrs Bathurst". Traffics and Discoveries. London: Macmillan. p. 352. https://archive.org/details/trafficsdiscover00kipluoft/page/n7/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater. 
  5. ↑ Wilson, Alastair; Wilson, Commander Alastair (19 October 2010). "Mrs Bathurst". KiplingSociety.co.uk. http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_bathurst1.htm. "... she had that indefinable quality which Kipling was the first to call 'It' – sex-appeal without flaunting her sexuality." 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Waterloo Daily Courier, 21 September 1950
  7. ↑ Stenn, David (1988). Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild. Doubleday. p. 272. ISBN 0-385-24125-9. https://archive.org/details/clarabowrunninwi00sten/page/272. 
  8. ↑ Evans, Caroline. (2013). The Mechanical Smile, pp 34–36, 39–41
  9. ↑ Bigham, Randy Bryan. (2012). Lucile: Her Life by Design pp 23–31.
  10. ↑ Duff-Gordon, Lady (Lucile). (1917). "The Last Word in Fashions". Harper's Bazaar, 63, October 1917
  11. ↑ Bigham, Randy Bryan. (2012). Lucile - Her Life by Design, 31, 275.
  12. ↑ private showing. (1927-01-01) Variety
  13. ↑ Donaldson, W. (2002) Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics.
  14. ↑ Uruburu, Paula (May 1, 2008). American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, the Birth of the 'It' Girl, and the Crime of the Century (First; hardcover ed.). Riverhead Books. ISBN 978-1594489938. https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781594489938. 
  15. ↑ LiveJournal: Discover global communities of friends who share your unique passions and interests
  16. ↑ Keogh, Kat (26 June 2011). "Kat Keogh: Tamara Beckwith – now an over-the-ill IT girl". Birmingham Mail. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/tv/kat-keogh-tamara-beckwith---224641. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Jackson, Marie; Harris, Dominic (9 February 2017). "Tara Palmer-Tomkinson and co: Whatever happened to the 'It girl'?" (in en-GB). BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38918918. 
  18. ↑ McInerney, Jay (7 November 1994). "Chloe's Scene". The New Yorker. New York City: Condé Nast. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/11/07/chloes-scene. 
  19. ↑ "It-Girl Sara Schätzl aus München Öffentlich bis zum Zusammenbruch". Süddeutsche Zeitung. 31 January 2012. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/it-girl-sara-schaetzl-aus-muenchen-oeffentlich-bis-zum-zusammenbruch-1.1265521. 
  20. ↑ Schneider, Martin. "Sara Schätzl: Warnung vor dem Roten Teppich". http://www.max.de/pop-kultur/people/sara-schaetzl-glamourgirl. 
  21. ↑ Haddad, Hanan (2020-10-23). "5 Things About South Korea's It-Girl, Jessi That You Need To Know" (in en-US). https://www.elle.com.sg/2020/10/23/everything-you-need-to-know-korean-singer-jessi-facts/. 
  22. ↑ Poole, Robert Michael (2012-09-20). "'It' girl Rola welcomes Jepsen to Japan" (in en-US). https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2012/09/20/music/it-girl-rola-welcomes-jepsen-to-japan/. 
  23. ↑ "#ELLECoverStar: K-Pop Star And Dior's Newest Brand Ambassador, Kim Jisoo" (in en-US). https://elle.in/article/ellecoverstar-kim-jisoo/. 
  24. ↑ [category/[slug] "Who is Jennie Kim, The K-Pop It Girl Who Fans Call the 'Human Chanel'? - Jennie Kim Blackp"] (in en-US). https://www.lofficielusa.com/[category]/[slug]. 
  25. ↑ It Girl Musical

Further reading




Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Social:It_girl&oldid=3177806"