Press
Refinery 29 May 2010
4 It Girls of Tomorrow
It may seem like all you need in order to be an It Girl are extra-long legs, a turntable, and somewhat elusive employment. But trust us—among the denizens of gentlewomen fitting those first three criteria, not all can have that particular brand of je ne sais quoi. Big cities are full of PYTs, but to make the R29 cut, you've got to have a wallop-packing personality, inspiring talents, and mad, mad, mad style. So, behold: Four new ladies, hand-picked by yours truly, who more than fit the bill for It Girl Of Tomorrow. Get ready to have a girl crush.
1. Molly Young. Bluesy ingenue with an edge.
This adorable scribe definitely has style chops to match her writing skills. A grad of Brown, our 23-year-old fashion lass blogs for Spike Jonze's blog We Love You So, and was also profiled on Urban Outfitters and in Paper magazine just this month. magicmolly.tumblr.com.
It Girl 101: "I live in Chinatown and write for a whole bunch of places: n+1, Vice, The Economist's arts supplement, The Believer, the Poetry Foundation, Maxim, and a handful of others! I blog at my personal site and also for Spike Jonze at We Love You So. I'm also working on a young adult novel in which sartorial nuances play a crucial part—but I have to keep mum about that for now! What else? I'm 23-years-old. My favorite things are the smell of new shoes, seasonal drugstore candy displays, and discovering money in my pocket that I'd forgotten about."
Secret weapon? "First, a Veda leather jacket with a dramatic, face-framing collar. Second, Givenchy eyeliner. Everyone looks good in a leather jacket and eyeliner! Plus, I have round and slightly babyish features, so I benefit from some toughening-up. Veda pieces have judicious girly touches that offset the stern quality of the material, so the pieces end up being feminine in an interesting way. And finally, I keep a spray-bottle of water mixed with salt under my bathroom sink. As a kid growing up in California I went surfing after school, and the sea always did mystical things with my hair, which I liked—so now I always put a little saltwater on it when I get out of the shower."
What are your five style signatures?
1. "Square bangles and cuffs from Anna Sheffield's Bing Bang line."
2. "Marais classic Oxfords."
3. "Vivienne Westwood's Anglomania Monday dress in any print—the most flattering cut of dress I've ever seen; it makes a woman look like a mermaid from the waist down and a conquistador from the waist up."
4. "Basic silk tops from The Reformation."
5. Black lacquered chopsticks from Chinatown kitchen supply stores for my hair!"
Decade of choice? "The 1910-1920 decade. I like sooty-looking, utilitarian garments. Clothes that you can do things in and that convey independence, capability, and self-respect. My building is a former tenement built in 1901, and I love plundering the archives for photographs of young men and women of that era. They have a good look. As long as you don't veer into steampunk territory, it's a useful period to reference."
Your bag of the moment: "Not terribly exciting, but I tote around an old black Lanvin Kentucky bag stuffed with notepads, whatever books I need for work, and a nasty pile of To-Do lists. It is difficult to find a bag with the capacity to fit all these things! If Alexander Wang designs a backpack big enough to haul around a small pile of bricks, I might convert. Or a wheelie suitcase."
What's your theme song? "It's more of a bluesy lick."
Photos by Bryan Derballa.
