How To Be Her
She haunts you.
Many women have a “her”. She is the woman they strive to be — the woman that they are but that they do not know how to fully embody. This her haunts her. She dreams of her, she reaches towards her, she wants to be her.
In the women’s part of the internet and popular culture, as well as in my personal correspondences with women, there is a very consistent group of women that inspire and move them: Marilyn Monroe, Sade, Monica Bellucci, Josephine Baker, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Maria Callas, Carla Bruni, Dita Von Teese, Lana Del Rey, Anita Ekberg, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Diana, Marlene Dietrich, Bianca Jagger, Amal Clooney, Greta Garbo, Diana Ross, Anna Nicole Smith, Donyale Luna, 1990’s models like Yasmeen Ghauri, Eva Herzigova or Naomi Campbell, as well as the women of the Swans circle (Babe Paley, Slim Keith, C.Z Guest, Lee Radziwill). Among authors we consistently see Anais Nin, Sylvia Plath and Clarice Lispector.
They are omnipresent in women’s media. You may see these women on Pinterest, Instagram, on TikTok, on Youtube — women create moodboards about them, explore their lives, their biographies, relationships, dissect and analyse their archetypes, astrology, aesthetics and more. I am sure you have seen the Sade moodboards with felines, coffee, tortoise print and Narciso Rodriguez “For Her” somewhere on it. Or the aspirational lawyers and political science students with their Amal Clooney moodboards. Or the mystically & intellectually inclined, pilates girls who do their Brigitte Bardot moodboards with luxurious ballet flats and niche butter brands. Our modern day Bohemian has Diane Von Frustenberg, Cher and Bianca Jagger on it paired with eclectic literature, 1970’s folk music, crystals, and cigarettes.
