La Dernier Cri: A certain ‘je ne sais quoi’

A fashion icon is a person who inspires others to try new and different things. It’s a person who spurs trends, yet always stays true to his or her personal style. It’s a person who works for years cultivating a style that has an effortless grace and elegance and is the perfect marriage of trendy and timeless. It takes a lot of work. \nJacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Grace Kelly, Kate Winslet, Audrey Hepburn and Reese Witherspoon represent some of the female fashion icons through the years. While I am in no way trying to compare these women to one another, it’s beyond argument that each has a certain “je ne sais quoi” about them. They are always impeccable, graceful and elegant.\nYet, these days it seems the fashion icon as we know it is disappearing and being replaced with a much younger, trendier, less polished model. Young starlets like Hillary Duff, Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen twins, among others, are seen as fashion icons. Thirteen-year-old Dakota Fanning was even featured in Marc Jacobs’ series of ads that promoted his 2007 Spring and Summer collection. While these girls are all very trendy and stylish, they are just that: girls. Most are under the age of 25. In the future, after these girls have grown up, are we going to look back at them and still think they look good?\nAnother problem with making young celebrity fashion icons is that most of them are styled by the same person (young Hollywood stylist of choice Rachel Zoe). The only thing that comes of this combination of young stars and an overstretched stylist is a sea of very trendy, but very much the same, young girls. Because these young stars make mediocre films and then show up at the film’s premiere wearing a couture gown a stylist selects, they are seen as fashion icons. \nInstead of looking to this younger Hollywood set as modern icons, we need to look to those established and stable women who have inspired us for decades, and those who will continue to be fashion powerhouses in the future. We should look to women like Sarah Jessica Parker, Reese Witherspoon and Kate Winslet for having modern senses of style that are both fashion-forward and timeless, and to Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn for their inherent chic, which will always be in style. And finally, we should look to Jacqueline Kennedy, the greatest example of casual chic and effortless elegance. \nThe idolization of youth is inevitable, but there is something to be desired in a woman who is a bit older, sophisticated, accomplished and put-together. When we look to girls as young as 13 to be our fashion icons, we lose sight of what it is to be capable, grown-up women. Just because a teen icon’s overstuffed closet is full of couture dresses and designer labels does not mean she is a fashion icon. It is only when a woman learns what really works for her that she becomes fashionable.