by In the 1960s, the path to becoming an ‘It girl’ was quite simple. You would be beautiful (bonus points if you were well tied), stylish (looking good in a mini skirt was a prerequisite) and date a famous man (Andy Warhol would do). These days, the formula is so complicated, the field so crowded and the criteria so vague, that if Edie Sedgwick had been born in 1998, it is unlikely that we would have ever heard of her.
Sofia Richie was born in 1998, and if you haven’t been listening to her, you haven’t been paying attention. Richie, 25, is the current hottie in the fashion world, a golden confluence of enviable style, famous parentage and sensibly curated social media feeds, whose every post is an obsession for his 10.9 million Instagram followers and 3.5 million TikTok followers. . In terms of numbers, this may not give her the influence of a Kardashian, but for a demographic of women whose style is more Carolyn Bessett Kennedy than Kim, Richie represents the aspirational American dream. You wouldn’t catch Richie making a sex tape: she’s too busy strutting around the internet in white shirts, knits and taupe dresses at the set.
Of course, she is a nepo child. Her mother is the actress Diane Alexander; her father multi-platinum artist Lionel Richie, who met in 1984, Hello, staying at number one on the UK charts for six long weeks. Her parents divorced when she was six years old, but if there was any exercise, you wouldn’t know it: her mother is her “best friend” and her father is her “role model”. In fact, by Hollywood standards, both parents seem to be extremely wise: when Richie, who was 19 at the time, started dating Scott Disick, who was 34 at the time, said the father Lionel The telegraph: “Will it be for life? I do not know. But at this point it’s just a step and I’m going to stand still in the corner, and not make too much noise. “
Happily for Lionel, the couple split in 2020, with Disick going on to date a series of younger women, much to the chagrin of his ex-partner Kourtney Kardashian, with whom he shares three children. Richie was a much wiser man who in 2021 started dating Elliot Grainge, a childhood friend whose father, Lucian Grainge, has just become the chief executive of Universal Music, the label Lionel is signed to (including other clients The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Rihanna). “I would always tell him [Elliot]’Whoever ends up with you is the most convenient girl’,” she said in an interview with the digital fashion publication Who spends. “And then I realized… why can’t I be that lucky girl?”
If Richie tends to talk like Giselle i Representatives, her saccharine tones will only endear her to even more fans. There’s nothing prudish or brooding about Richie: she has a sunny disposition, with a disposition that can be very charming in troubled times. “My whole platform is based on this kind of ‘Friend Friend Energy’ – just being honest with the people I follow,” she said Laughter. She’s Reese Witherspoon for the digital age, with the same ambition, drive and heart-shaped entrepreneurship.
Like Witherspoon, Richie has played her hand with aplomb. She has credited her older sister, Nicole, with giving her good advice: as a star of a hit TV show, The simple life, Nicole knows that Nicole knows that it is known about Hollywood fame. Richie has certainly left no stone unturned to stake his claim as a fashion influence. Her viral summer wedding went from being super chic: the bride wore three custom Chanel dresses (Google searches for ‘Chanel wedding dress’ went up 500 percent over the next 24 hours), and got married at Hotel du Cap Eden Roc in Antibes. Bringing her fans the ‘Friend Friend Energy’ ever, she documented what went on behind the scenes with hilarious honesty. LaughterMeanwhile, documented the rest.
It is this winning combination of stylishness and relatability that has industry experts pegging Richie as the next big mega-brand, which has the potential to become Gwyneth Paltrow or Selena Gomez. She already has brand partnerships with Prada Beauty, Jo Malone and David Yurman at the bank, and is plotting a lifestyle brand, according to an interview in December. Porter journal. “My real focus is design, and 2024 is when I really start building on that SRG [Sofia Richie Grainge] Brand,” she said, adding that it would include fashion, beauty, interiors and the SRG product line.
For these categories, she can add children’s clothing. At 25, she’s just revealed that she’s six months pregnant with a baby girl (via a stunning photo shoot and an announcement on stage in Laughter, naturally). Already, her pregnancy style is making waves. Like all of her best looks, its appeal is that it’s easy to recreate: think an oversized white shirt, comfy sweatpants, minimal makeup and a slick bottom accessorized with tasteful hoop earrings. At a time when the ‘mob woman aesthetic’ dominates the trend cycle, Richie offers something more accessible and low-key: ‘classic rich woman’, if you will. The world is waiting for news of the baby shower, the month of the baby and the naked nursery with bated breath. Mindless escape? Definitely. But we all need a little of that.
