Sunday, March 20, 2022

Eight top literary “It” Girls

Véronique Hyland is ELLE’s fashion features director. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, W, New York magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and Condé Nast Traveler.

Hyland's new book is Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink.

At Lit Hub the author tagged eight favorite literary "It" Girls: they don't all have "the tragic cast of their real-life counterparts, but they all share one crucial trait: fabulous outfits, breathlessly described." One entry on the list:
Nicole Diver from Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The young actress Rosemary Hoyt might be the traditional ingenue of the story, but the troubled Nicole Diver definitely wins the fashion stakes. She conducts one of the most epic shopping sprees in all of literature, working from a two-page list that includes “two chamois leather jackets of kingfisher blue and burning bush from Hermès.” While Nicole’s buying binge is meant to be troubling—it foreshadows her growing mania—the actual race to the cash register is, at least, vicariously fun to read about.
Read about another entry on the list.

Tender is the Night is among John Dugdale's ten hottest highbrow books for the beach, Gene Wilder's six all-time favorite books, DBC Pierre's top ten books writers should read, Olivia Laing's ten best books & stories on drinking and booze and Joni Rendon and Shannon McKenna Schmidt's top nine works inspired by writers’ love lives.

--Marshal Zeringue