Edie Sedgwick

Probably best known for being one of Andy Warhol’s muses, she is the epitome of the swinging '60s scene and one of the architects of the beatnik style. Part muse, part model, sometime actress and wild society girl, she is Edie Sedgwick.

I will disregard her sad story and short life (died at 28) and just write about her as a fashion icon of the 60s. In the end, Sedgwick's lasting legacy is her individuality, not her unhappy private life.

With her thick, black kohl eyeliner, bouffant hair and antique chandelier earrings dripping priceless jewels was quite an appearance for 1965, New York. No one has ever seen anything quite like this young woman.

Sedgwick's unique fashion sense flowered in the rebellious avant-garde atmosphere. She would wear her grandmother's jewels with a long dress and bare feet. Opaque tights, leotards, false eyelashes and chandelier earrings became her signature pieces. She had her own sense of style.

She had first appeared in Vogue in August 1965 as a „youthquaker” and then later on in March 15, 1966. She was described as „white-haired with anthracite-black eyes and legs to swoon over”. But, never became part of „the family at Vogue” because, according to senior editor Gloria Schiff: „she was identified in the gossip columns with the drug scene and we were just anti that scene as a policy”. She also became designer Betsey Johnson’s first fitting model. „ She was very boyish; in fact,she was the very beginning of the whole unisex trip”, said Johnson. By 1966, Sedgwick’s fashion sense had been picked up by the mainstream.

But nobody could ever have predicted the influence her unique style would continue to have, from Kate Moss's pixie haircut in 2001 to John Galliano's 2005 show for Christian Dior. "Edie danced to her own tune, and I imagine this is what inspired Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan as much as it did me," said Galliano. "She created her own identity ... She may only have had 15 minutes of fame, but her style and image influenced a whole generation."

Sienna Miller, which is one of my favorite actresses and style icons, impersonated Edie Sedgwick very good in the movie 'Factory Girl' (2006).

The video below is from the underground movie Ciao! Manhattan (1972), the last movie Edie played in, based on her life story.