The “It” Girl & Her Battle with Declining Longevity

Written By Kaitlyn Rutledge

IMAGE VIA GUEST IN RESIDENCE WEBSITE

We live in an ever-evolving world filled with trend turnover. By the time those now-popular Birkenstock clogs you saw on TikTok are delivered to your door, social media has moved on to a new iteration of the trend. As a society, we are facing issues with sustainability and originality in this increasingly quick trend cycle, but does this phenomenon apply to our favorite “it” girls? With this week’s launch of Guest in Residence, “it” girl of the moment Gigi Hadid’s cashmere brand, this brings up the question—how much do our golden girls have to do to fight against the current of relevancy? And what happens if they don’t?

 

CINDY CRAWFORD & NAOMI CAMPBELL \ PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

The sentiment of the “it” girl has been around since the rise of Audreys & Marilyns in the Golden Age of Hollywood. However, it wasn’t until the 1990s when the modern poster-girl celebrity came to being. The Big Six Supermodels, a term first coined to refer to the group, of the 90s (think Naomi, Cindy, Kate, etc.) became the first group of models to gain such traction as ultra-famous celebrities on the A-list. Before these women, it was few and far between to see a model photographed rubbing elbows with Oscar winners or even falling into such favor with the general public. Their legacy has clearly continued through today’s equivalent group composed of Kaia Gerber, Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, and our aforementioned Hadid sisters.

 

While The Big Six laid the groundwork for the public’s supermodel culture obsession, the rise of the internet and social media quickly altered the definition of the “celebrity.” Paris Hilton, New York heiress and socialite, is who we can point to as the “original influencer,” as she is now famously dubbed. Paris, not maintaining a traditional profession of an A-lister, crafted the persona we all know, love, and can’t take our eyes off, even twenty years after her rise to the spotlight.

 

The rise of social media continues to draw the public eye to people with less traditional professions, and ultimately lead these women to fall into the “it” girl role. The definition of celebrity has been thoroughly expanded since Paris’ trail-blaze, and the use of the term “influencer” is now in regular use. The category of those who qualify as an influencer has also expanded greatly, no longer requiring a large following to be invited to exclusive events or work with large brands via social platforms. For some, the line between celebrity and influencer is thin and blurry, with certain influencers, such as Matilda Djerf, maintaining multi-million-follower platforms.

This leads us to our current era of the celebrity brand. Guest in Residence, Goop, SKIMS, Rhode, Djerf Avenue— the gambit is run with clothing, beauty, wellness, and lifestyle products catered perfectly to these companies’ founder’s followings. Creating a brand of some sort is so commonplace for celebrities and influencers now that it seems like the natural next step for any young woman on her way up society’s public social ladder.

 

The problem with all these brands? Twofold actually-- first, influencers unwilling to create a personally branded side project outside of their social media work will be hard pressed to hold on to any sort of longevity in the spotlight. Second, the creation of products and brands tied to such trending people can give these said products and brands a trending nature as well, which only leads to overconsumption. While some of these companies are holding longevity, others are burning out faster than the stars creating them.

 

We can see this problem attempting to be addressed in the sustainability initiatives being put forth by the very companies contributing to the celebrity/ influencer brand cycle. For example, under the Discover GIR tab on the Guest in Residence website, the brand states, “WE ARE A 100% CASHMERE KNITWEAR BRAND DESIGNING HEIRLOOM QUALITY PIECES... GARMENTS DESIGNED TO LAST YEARS, NOT SEASONS.” While she is creating the hottest new celebrity-created clothing brand, Gigi is seemingly coming out with her most sustainable foot forward!

 

So, what’s the next move for our “it” girls? They’ve attended the parties, made their appearances, rewrote the rules of social media, produced every line of product their followers could need, and now what? With the goal of longevity in mind, society’s golden girls will continue to operate on the cutting edge of staying relevant… and I am sure the rest of us will be here to follow their lead.

 

xo

KR

 

PARIS HILTON \ PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

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Kaitlyn Rutledge
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