Inexplicable allure: How Andy Warhol modernised the mythological ‘It’ girl
“I’d like to turn the whole world on, just for a moment, keep that superlative high just on the cusp of each day so that I radiate sunshine.” – Edie Sedgwick
In 1965, a reserved Andy Warhol appeared alongside Edie Sedgwick on The Merv Griffin Show. Sedgwick, adorned in an understated black body suit and her usual, endearingly bright-eyed demeanour, charmed her way through the conversation, playfully teasing the host through navigations of what constitutes art and the poignancy of putting a camera in front of a soup can. Warhol, who sat in silence, speaking only to deliver one-word answers, reflected a prophecy about everything the ‘It’ girl had come to symbolise—bright, brilliant, and beautiful women leading the charge of their more reticent artistic partners.
Throughout history, the concept of the ‘It’ girl has manifested in different ways. From the earlier fixations of Evelyn Nesbit and Sedgwick to Bridgitte Bardot and Alexa Chung, the ‘It’ girl has consistently been a label applied to women who captivate with their individualistic charm, intellect, and ability to allure. For the artist, they provide the perfect muse—commanding the spotlight with an indefinable quality that invites timeless fascination.
For the quintessential ‘It’ girl, the sense of “je ne sais quoi” both puzzles and delights, leaving people endlessly fascinated by her blend of beauty and mystery. Those captivated by her presence often find themselves more intrigued than they are concerned with understanding what makes her so compelling. In almost every industry, such enigmatic figures are celebrated for their unique allure and fame, spotlighted as if they hold the answers to nearly everything—except the secret of their own magnetism. As a result, they gain unparalleled access and influence, seamlessly navigating any space, anywhere, at any time.
When Dianne Brill appeared on Late Night With David Letterman in 1985, he seemed perplexed by her inclusion on the lineup because, after all, what she appeared to him was nothing more than the occupier of a magazine cover story, a name which held little meaning other than to represent the world’s fixation with young and beautiful female figures. However, her responses both dispelled his sceptical queries and shed light on the purpose of such influential contributions. “How do you get to be [the Queen of the Night]?” Letterman asked, to which she boldly and confidently responded, “I’m a downtown, uptown, midtown cheerleader. I go everywhere. They think obviously you’re the one who made the party because all of a sudden, when you leave, the party’s down.”
Before Brill’s appearance on the once-coveted television slot, the premise of the ‘It’ girl had already been demonstrated and explained by the many that came before. Although not as directly as Brill’s descriptions, the ‘It’ girl generally follows a pattern of young women of endless and timeless nightlife-esque energy. Grace Jones occupied the role amid her dark and enigmatic persona and her ability to tell interviewers (Russell Harty) to remain focused on what matters the most. Sally Randall also embraced and challenged the position, explaining to The Cut in 1985 that the ‘It’ girl isn’t something you easily define. “They say, ‘You have to see it’,” she said.
Although rarely the same but always the dilettante, the ‘It’ girl has remained a constant throughout the ages, its convoluted nature and subjectivity resulting in many questioning the purpose of the term and whether it is more beneficial to legitimising and platforming women or derogatory and only used to perpetuate negative, objectifying, stereotypes. However, to truly understand how the concept has transitioned over time, we must venture back to the first artist who modernised the term and set the standard for the contemporary iteration that we see today.
Warhol, along with many other things, revolutionised culture by sensationalising the mundane. And before that line immediately warrants assumptions about his impact on the ‘It’ girl, it was quite the opposite. The accessibility of The Factory meant that Warhol was able to modernise the way we view celebrity fixation inadvertently by normalising the voyeuristic relationship with those behind the camera, including audiences. A lot of Warhol’s work was about humanising the celebrity figure, documenting the various vapidities of their lives by showcasing just that.
Sedgwick and Baby Jane Holzer were socialists and reflections of society at large, holding the instability of celebrity access at their core as they both defined and guided it. Although much of what Warhol created was a ploy to expose normality in fantastical ways, he guided the ‘It’ girl into a new realm where their fame centralised on one crucial factor: a fleeting fetish for those who idealised boisterous, outgoing energy. Although Sedgwick was the grand cultural moment of the 1960s, audience captivation soon vanished, revealing another central aspect of Warhol’s newfound fame-obsessed landscapes: the ‘It’ girl moves on and evolves rapidly.
At The Factory, the ‘It’ girl changed almost like they were on rotation. In the 1970s, Warhol’s Interview magazine included a column that centralised different women and their statuses as the current occupier of mystique, navigating the various ways they qualified for the role. Before Warhol’s muses, the ‘It’ girl was usually a young debutante, a harmless and timeless figure whose beauty became central to her magnetism. Following Warhol’s impact, the new breed of ‘It’ girl was celebrated not only for her beauty and charisma but also for her role in challenging traditional norms and shaping contemporary cultural trends.
In the following years, the concept maintained its definitive roots in a traditional sense while opening up in more diverse ways to reflect the varying facets of society. Depending on the culture, movement, and era, the ‘It’ girl became a space reserved for those who could guide the way, used for or against central movements that were deemed threatening to society at large. The ‘It’ girl was no longer just a symbol of affluence and a source of joy and escape, she could also be societal and political weapon.
From the 1980s onward, the concept went through varying degrees of celebrating conservatism and showing that breaking the mould was not only possible but necessary. Diana Ross might have occupied the spotlight in the 1970s, showing that the modern music landscape had space for intelligent and beautiful black women, but she was also often shoehorned into a traditional paradigm where her delicate demeanour was almost repositioned as maternal. While, for a long time, the downtown clubbing scene was strongly interlinked with the star-gazing position, this also became looser over time, almost subverting to become something more outlandish.
Attempting to navigate the modern ‘It’ girl is a challenging venture, but it ultimately starts with studying Warhol’s crossover into celebrity culture and the ways it became a cultural touchstone for understanding the modern iteration of the female muse. Often, it’s difficult to identify the role of the observer and how the ‘It’ girl consistently feeds the celebrity-hungry hearts of the masses, but the always-on nature of the modern age and social media’s impact has sparked a much-needed re-evaluation of the term. Now, the ‘It’ girl seems to have diminished in conjunction with improved equity.
There are many reasons why the landscape has changed, but the main one is that audiences and content creators have become more attuned to diversity and the qualities that make someone truly admirable. Those who occupied the label before were often viewed through the relatively one-dimensional male gaze, spotlighted primarily for their beauty and wealth. In contrast, women today either reject the concept of the ‘It’ girl altogether or redefine it as part of a new brand—one that embraces complexity, intellect, and individuality.
