How to be like Edie Sedgwick

With a life as quick and bright as a shooting star, Edie Sedgwick has become an icon of the sixties underground for her style, beauty, warmth, and her troubled personal life. Quite arguably Warhol's most famous superstar, Edie was the subject of numerous songs, books, and a biopic with a cult-like following (she also inadvertently was a central part of the lawsuit Bob Dylan filed as a result of Factory Girl's implication of his role in her death). In addition to the legions of girls who copied "her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls" during the 1960s, Edie has inspired many modern-day gals. Taking style cues from Sedgwick is not just Factory Girl star Sienna Miller, but also the likes of Nicole Richie, Mary-Kate Olsen, Samaire Armstrong, Lindsay Lohan, the late Brittany Murphy (I wrote a post about Edie and Brittany a few months ago), and many other young girls who look smashing wearing black tights en lieu of pants. I myself have been a devoted fan of Edie for many years, and I offer my abbreviated guide to Sedgwick-dom to any (and every) one fascinated with the first "poor little rich girl":

Edie's Wardrobe:

• Black opaque tights
• Fur coats (in a variety of different kinds: mink, leopard, monkey, fox, etc.)
• Black leotards (to wear to dance class)
• Black-and-white striped anything - tee shirts, sweaters, tank tops
• Boatneck shirts (especially black-and-white striped boatnecks!)
• Sleeveless shift dresses in metallics, monochrome prints, and a variety of different materials (Edie had a Betsey Johnson-designed shift dress made out of vinyl when Edie was the spokesmodel for Betsey's line Paraphernalia)
• White v-neck tee shirts
• Black mohair turtleneck with long sleeves
• Tight, short miniskirts

Her Accessories:

• Shoulder-duster earrings (Check out Steve Sasco Designs for exact replicas of Edie's earrings. Sasco was jewelry designer for Factory Girl - I can vouch for his designs; I own several pairs and they are exquisite)
• Black undergarments (rocked onscreen by Edie during Poor Little Rich Girl and Beauty No. 2)
• Black ballet flats
• Black high heels (slingbacks, etc.)
• Fishnet tights
• Long chain necklaces to layer with one another
• Black rosary necklace
• Brown leather rhino from Abercrombie and Fitch
• Hats (newsboy caps, wide-brimmed felt hats, fur cloche hats)
• Her two perfumes of choice were by fashion house Rochas: Fracas, and Femme (seen in Poor Little Rich Girl)

Pastimes:

• Sketching portraits of horses
• Listening to the Everly Brothers while ordering orange juice and coffee, applying makeup, getting dressed, and explaining how she spent her entire inheritance in six months (a la Poor Little Rich Girl)
• Posing for the pages of Vogue
• Hanging out at the Factory
• Burning down rooms in the Chelsea
• Dancing, dancing, dancing

Acquaintances:

• Betsey Johnson
• Bob Dylan and Bob Neuwirth
• Andy Warhol
• Brigid Berlin
• Baby Jane Holzer
• The Velvet Underground
• Mick Jagger
• Ultra Violet
• Chuck Wein
• Sally Kirkland
• Bibbe Hansen
• Salvador Dali
• Judy Garland
• Diana Vreeland

Hangouts:

• The silver Factory
• Santa Barbara ranch
• Silver Hill Hospital
• The Chelsea Hotel
• Max's Kansas City

Pearls of Wisdom:

• "I think drugs are like strawberries and peaches."
• "I'd like to turn the whole world on just for a moment. Just for a moment."
• "I'll have to put more earrings on. I bet that someone could analyze me and tell my condition by my earrings."
• "I know a lot of rich people and they're all pigs."
• "I really like good, beautiful clothes. I love the space, Courreges things. I love Rudi Gernreich. I hate to go through seventeen buttons. I'm nervous enough going someplace."
• "Speed is the ultimate, all-time high. That first rush - wow! Just that burning, searing, soaring sense of perfection. There's no way to explain it unless you've been through it."
• "I'm greedy. I'd like to keep most of it for myself and a few others, a few of my friends. Keep that superlative high just on the cusp of each day so that I radiate sunshine."
• "Wherever I've gone I've been quite notorious. And quite innocently so."
• "I lived a very isolated life. When you start at twenty, you have a lot of nonsense to work out of your system."
• "I had fun, but I really didn't have anyone I particularly loved. And I still don't, except for loving friends, but I mean I haven't been in love with anyone in years and years. But I have a certain amount of faith that it'll come."
• "I made a mask out of my face because I didn't realize I was quite beautiful. God blessed me so. I practically destroyed it. I had to wear heavy black eyelashes like bat wings, and dark lines under my eyes, and cut all my hair off, my long dark hair. Cut it off and stripped it silver and blonde. All those little maneuvers I did out of things that were happening in my life that upset me."
• "You care enough, that you want your life to be fulfilled in a living way. Not in a painting way, not in a writing way ... You really do want it to be involved in living, corresponding with other living objects, moving, changing, that kind of thing."
• "They say use it, channel it. Do it, like there will be a sign, be an artist, you're so creative, do anything, you've got to do it, use it. Then, things like, and you've got to collect yourself too. I mean, you know, make your hair more about yourself, self-respect. But I mean, ridiculous."
• [About a dream she had] "It's like my having to walk down thousands and thousands of white marble stairs ... and nothing but a very very blue sky, very blue, like ... Yes, and I'd have to walk down them forever. I never thought about going up ... I don't know, don't you think that must mean something? It never occurred to me to turn around, I mean, why didn't I think that way? This was after I had the car accident."
• "It's sort of like a mockery, in a way of reality because they think everything is smiles and sweetness and flowers where there is something bitter to taste. And to pretend there isn't is foolish. I mean the ones that wander around and know, at the same time, and yet wear flowers, and they deserve to wear flowers. And they've earned their smile. You can tell by people's eyes."