New York Magazine's 35th Anniversary

"It" Girls

There were so many reasons we couldn’t take our eyes off them.

Pretty in Pink: Debbie Harry in 1977.

(Photo: Bob Gruen/Star File)

NIKKI HASKELL
HEYDAY: early eighties
First to parlay her “It”-ness into a talk show—and a diet candy line called Starcaps.

AERIN LAUDER
HEYDAY: late nineties
Boom-era Park Avenue princess.

STELLA SCHNABEL
HEYDAY: this very instant
Such impeccable downtown cred that she waltzed with Basquiat when she was still teething.

FRAN LEBOWITZ
HEYDAY: hanging with Calvin in the eighties
Wisecracking, chain-smoking, social-climbing. We hope we’re still around when her novel comes out.

CHLOË SEVIGNY
HEYDAY: 1994 profile in The New Yorker
Lapped up by everyone from Jay McInerney to Larry Clark, she managed to pull off skate-kid glamour while still living with Mom in Darien.

CANDACE BUSHNELL
HEYDAY: 1999
Peddled cocktail-party existentialism to the city’s afraid-to-settle singles. Who needs a husband in this town (even if she finally got one)?

CHRISTIE BRINKLEY
HEYDAY: grooving in the “Uptown Girl” video in 1983
Shiksa fantasy for all Long Island boys, including Billy Joel.

BIANCA JAGGER
HEYDAY: circa 1977
Marries Mick wearing le smoking by YSL, comes to New York, and rules the night—trotting into Studio 54 on horseback.

MARISA BERENSON
HEYDAY: circa 1978
Doe-eyed disco queen.

DEBBIE HARRY
HEYDAY: circa 1980
“Your hair is beautiful, tonight . . . ” Punk goddess with an angel face.

LAUREN HUTTON
HEYDAY: circa American Gigolo
That fabulous gap . . .

BETTE MIDLER
HEYDAY: 1970, singing with Barry Manilow at the Continental Baths
When she sang, the boys stopped cruising.

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