The path to becoming an ‘It Girl’ in the 1960s was pretty simple. You would be beautiful (bonus points if you had good connections), you would be stylish (looking good in a miniskirt was a prerequisite), and you would date a famous man (Andy Warhol would too). 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, we’d never have heard of her.
Sofia Richie was born in 1998 and if you haven’t heard of her, you haven’t been paying attention to her. Richie, 25, is the current darling of the fashion world, a golden combination of enviable style, famous parentage, and cleverly curated social media feeds whose every post has become something of an obsession for her 10.9 million Instagram followers and 3.5 million TikTok followers. By the numbers, that might not give him the clout of a Kardashian, but for a female demographic whose style is more akin to Carolyn Bessett Kennedy than Kim, Richie represents the aspirational American dream. You won’t catch Richie making a sex tape: He’s too busy scouring the internet in white shirts, brown braids and The Row dresses.
Frankly, he’s a nepo baby. His mother is actress Diane Alexander; his father is multi-platinum artist Lionel Richie, who had a hit in 1984 Hello, remained at number one in the UK charts for six long weeks. His parents divorced when he was six, but you wouldn’t know it if there was acrimony: His mother is his “best friend” and his father is his “role model.” In fact, by Hollywood standards, both parents seem unusually sensible: Richie, then 19, began dating Scott Disick, then 34, Father Lionel said. Telegram: “Will it be for life? I don’t know. But for now it’s just a phase and I’ll just stand still in the corner and not make too much noise.”
Happily for Lionel, the couple split in 2020 and Disick began dating a string of younger women, much to the chagrin of his former partner Kourtney Kardashian, with whom he shares three children. It was a much smarter Richie who started dating childhood friend Elliot Grainge in 2021; his father, Lucian Grainge, was chief executive of Universal Music, the label to which Lionel was signed (other clients include The Beatles, Taylor Swift and Rihanna). “I would always tell him [Elliot]’Whoever you end up meeting will be the luckiest girl,’ she said in an interview with the digital fashion publication. Who’s Wearing What?. “Then I realized… Why can’t I be that lucky girl?”
If Richie has a tendency to talk like Giselle Magical, her sweet tones endear her even more to her fan base. There is nothing arrogant or cynical about Richie: he always looks sunny and has a temperament that can seem particularly attractive in troubled times. “My whole platform is based on that kind of ‘best friend energy,’ to be honest with the people who follow me,” he said. Vogue. She’s the Reese Witherspoon of the digital age, with the same heart-shaped face, motivation and entrepreneurial drive.
Like Witherspoon, Richie played her part with shrewd aplomb. She noted that her older sister, Nicole, offered sound advice: as the star of the hit TV show, simple lifeNicole knows everything there is to know about achieving Hollywood fame. Richie certainly left no detail to chance when planning his rise as a fashion influencer. The summer wedding went viral for being surprisingly stylish: The bride wore three custom-made Chanel dresses (Google searches for ‘Chanel wedding dresses’ jumped 500 percent in the next 24 hours) and got married at the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc in Antibes. . Always bringing with her the ‘best friend energy’ that her fans adore, she documented what goes on behind the scenes with humorous honesty. Voguemeanwhile he documented the rest.
It’s this winning blend of elegance and relatability that has industry experts pegging Richie as the next big megabrand, with the potential to be a Gwyneth Paltrow or Selena Gomez. The bank already has brand partnerships with Prada Beauty, Jo Malone and David Yurman and is planning a lifestyle brand, according to a December interview. Doorman magazine. “My main focus is design and 2024 is the beginning of me really developing this SRG. [Sofia Richie Grainge] brand,” he said, adding that it will include fashion, beauty, interiors and the SRG product line.
Children’s clothing can also be added to these categories. When she was 25, she announced (via a flashy photoshoot and staged announcement) that she was six months pregnant with a girl. Vogue, naturally). Pregnancy style is already causing a stir. Like all her best looks, the appeal of this look is that it’s easy to recreate: think oversized white shirt, cozy sweatpants, minimal makeup, and a chic bun accessorized with tasteful hoop earrings. At a time when the ‘mob wife aesthetic’ dominates the trend cycle, Richie offers something more approachable and understated: the ‘classic rich wife’, if you will. The world is waiting with bated breath for news of baby showers, babymoon and nursery promotions. Mindless escape? Definitely. But we all need a little bit of it.