What Makes an It Girl in 2024?
Spoiler: It’s more than just a cute fit pic on Instagram…
There was a time when the term “It Girl” extended solely to supermodels with unattainable figures and faces, focusing only on the conventionally attractive. Names like Cindy Crawford, Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton ruled the streets, gracing every magazine cover and campaign known to man, famed for their vivaciousness and magnetism. While those names still hold pretty significant weight in the fashion industry, recent years have paved the way for a new generation of It Girls to take over, ones not bound by one standard of beauty or size.
These days, the definition of an It Girl extends way past looks and charisma; it focuses on a sense of confidence, an unapologetic attitude and a commitment to being authentically themselves — whatever that looks like. In a more literal sense, the visual identity of an It Girl is one that’s evolved, too, no longer conforming to a one-size-fits-all aesthetic.
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For Cora Delaney, founder of talent agency EYC, looking for “it” is something that underpins her day-to-day. “The ‘It’ is difficult to pin down,” she tells us. “It’s charisma, it’s cool, it’s a whole load of things… we just want to know more about them. For us, looking for the next big thing is looking at all those qualities and if we are genuinely intrigued to find out more, we will.”
Isabella Weatherby, the founder of cult-loved label Peachy Den, describes It Girls or rather, muses, as she likes to call them, as someone with “an irrepressible sense of fun, self confidence, optimism and warmth. She’s cool — but never too cool for you.” It’s that personality that underpins everything Weatherby does with the brand, from casting campaigns to naming the pieces themselves. “We pay homage to our muses by naming our products and collections after them. The Deba is named after the ultimate peachy muse Deba Hekmat, the Lennox after the legendary Annie Lennox and the Amelia in ode of Amelia Earhart,” she tells us.
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Sandra Choi, Creative Director at Jimmy Choo, knows a thing or two about selecting the next It Girl. “To be an ‘It Girl’ means to be unapologetically yourself,” she tells us. “It’s someone who is interesting, interested, talented, confident, and playful, with an inspiring work ethic. We join forces with women who are effortlessly cool, glamorous and daring which is precisely why we decided to work with Sydney Sweeney for our Summer 2024 campaign. Sydney’s innate confidence comes through in each of the images — I love her unique allure and ability to empower other women and girls,” she adds.
Similarly, when discussing the phrase It Girl with the Hypebae team, it’s those same descriptors that come up. Words like “confidence,” “unapologetic” and “mysterious,” came to our minds, furthering the idea that “it” is all about who you are, and not just what you look like.
“Looking to the future, the ‘It Girl’ aesthetic needs a total shake up; I really hope we see more diversity moving forward, it’s something that we are 100% committed to,” adds Delaney.
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With that in mind, we can’t help but think about who we do consider to be our modern-day It Girls, the ones who do command that attention while being unapologetically themselves. For us, it’s models like Paloma Elsesser, Alex Consani and Alva Claire and creatives like Mia Khalifa and Richie Shazam. Collectively, those names might seem like they share little in common outside of their industries, but they’re bound together by an overwhelming sense of “it,” whatever “it” is.
