Tuesday 3 September 2013

what gives the "it" to a girl




Google Images is a source of surprises, and while doing some research, I stumbled upon a photo that captivated me. It was a picture of British model and socialite Alexa Chung. I had to double check, and was shocked with how much she reminded me of cinema legend Leslie Caron, particularly on the 1953 film, "Lili".




I started to compare more images of both, and the similarities are undeniable. That little something, not necessarily beautiful but definitely captivating and stunning about their faces, the features, that magic. And, as much as this may seem like a simple, curious coincidence, it got me thinking.


Leslie Caron
Alexa Chung


How about the so called "it girls" are not an extraordinary creature rising up from the rest of us mere mortals, but it is us, mere mortals, who make someone be "it" since they respond to certain patterns?

That sounds a little circuitous. Let's give this little statement some history backup; Ancient Greece. The golden era for scientists of all fields to play about, theorise and discover (and how else, almost everything was yet to be discovered!). Since Ancient Greece times, mathematicians and artists have been interested in the so called golden ratio, or divine proportion ratio. To summarise quickly (and with awful imprecision, scholars forgive me), this ratio could be used to calculate the proportions for the depiction of the human body in a way it would result aesthetically perfect to the human eye.




When such theory goes on and around for over 2,400 years, it doesn't seem too wild for me to state there is a certain beauty proportion our brain agrees with and responds to. Now, that being said, here comes the wondrous part of my statement: what if our brain finds a certain kind of beauty more appealing or adequate to a particular moment in time?

In this day and age, imagine throwing a busty, long-haired blonde bombshell like, say, Brigitte Bardot, in the socialite sphere. Besides the fact blonde bombshells will always be on demand, some more of the stereotypical beauty, displaying her take on "coolness" would probably not receive the warmest of welcomes. Contemporary society is tired of clichés. Tell hipsters, and their rebellion against conventionalism. Not that there aren't thousands of things that could be questioned about this particular social trend, but their adoration for anything that breaks with traditional beauty concepts is a reflection of how our young society feels.

Zooey Deschanel
Saoirse Ronan
Chloe Sevigny
Lou Doillon

In this context of search for new beauty expressions and shapes, who could be the next it girl? Follow your gut, have a look at the very young, not too relevant faces in the show business, the next icon-to-be is waiting to be discovered. My couple of guesses?


Alissa Skovbye




Raffey Cassidy




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