Edie Sedgwick

“You have to put up with the risk of being misunderstood if you are going to try to communicate. You have to put up with people projecting their own ideas, attitudes, misunderstanding you. But it’s worth being a public fool if that’s all you can be in order to communicate yourself.” - Edie

Edie is my personal favourite fashion icon, she was the original ‘it’ girl and her life was full of dramatic events. She was always full of fascination and incredibly energetic; her life was cut short but she had so much potential. Carry on reading to find out more…

Edith Minturn Sedgwick was born on April 20^th 1943 in California. Edie was an American actress who starred in a large amount of Andy Warhol's short films in the sixties, she was also a socialite and heiress.

 Edie loved ballet from a young age and practiced it for several hours a day because it was a calming exercise for her mind. She was one of eight children born into a New England family who were upper class.

Edie had a hectic life; her father, Francis, was self-absorbed, controlling and frequently abusive - he committed suicide in 1964. At one particularly tragic moment, Edie saw her father with another woman, Edie told her mother but Francis claimed Edie had imagined the event and had her put on tranquillisers.

Edie's older brother, Robert, suffered from mental health problems and died in a motorcycle accident a year after her father’s death. Edie’s other brother, Minty, was admitted to a psychiatric hospital where he hanged himself before his 26^th birthday. Her life was full of tragedy and misfortune.

Edie developed anorexia in her early teens and her weight plummeted to 41 kilograms! People began to worry about her health and she was admitted to the same psychiatric hospital as her brother, Minty. She got pregnant during her time at the hospital but had an abortion.

After Edie was released from hospital, she studied art at Harvard and it was not long before she met the artist, Andy Warhol who featured her in his movies, she became well-known for always being with Warhol and being his 'mirror image'. She was the star of the New York at/rock scene in the mid sixties.

It wasn’t long before her delicate personality unravelled and she stopped speaking to Andy Warhol, she battled drug addiction and moved back to her family home in Santa Barbara.

In 1971 Edie married Michael Post and grown her natural long dark hair back as she was overcoming her addiction to drugs and alcohol. On the evening before her death a palm reader grabbed her hand and was shocked by Edie’s short lifeline, Edie calmly replied, “It’s OK, I know.”

Edie died at 28 years old on November 16^th 1971 in California from an accidental overdose as a result of mixing medication with alcohol. Edie Sedgwick still lives on in music, poetry and art such as Bob Dylan's Just Like a Woman and The Cult’s Edie Ciao Baby which you can listen to below:

"She was a sweet simple girl. I don't know the other sides of Edie. I know the sweet, wide-eyed, enthusiastic Edie". ~ Betsey Johnson

Edie loved big fur coats, they were one of her favourite fashion items

As you can see she had a very dysfunctional life and she passed away at a young age, her style is still admired and her beauty will be remembered. Edie had a bizarre beauty regime - she wore three pairs of false eyelashes and sometimes used watercolour paints as eye-shadow!

Edie loved long earrings known as “shoulder-dusters” because they touched her shoulders; this was part of her signature style. After ballet, Edie would throw a big coat over the top of her leotard and stockings before heading off to Warhol’s factory.

Edie wanted light blonde hair but couldn’t find bleach strong enough for her likings so she used silver hairspray to achieve the effect; her hair was in a bouffant style.

Edie applying her make-up which could take up to four hours!

Edie enjoyed experimenting with make up and sometimes took up to 4 hours putting it on but sometimes she was so high on pills that she couldn’t do her own make up so she called a few of her gay friends to “do her face.” Her make up included heavy pale foundation, big bold eyebrows, shading of blacks, greys and whites on her eyes, false eyelashes and pale pink frosted lipstick. Here are some similar products you can use to achieve the effect:

Edie’s favourite fashion items were:

·         Black tights worn with everything

·         Stripy t-shirts

·         Ballet shoes

·         Chandelier “shoulder-duster” earrings

·         Long dresses

·         Leotards

·         Classic black, pointy-toed 3 inch heels

·         Fur jackets

Edie’s favourite casual outfit was a long stripy t-shirt with opaque tights; she was seen wearing this quite often. I have found fresh new clothes that bear a resemblance to Edie’s clothes:

Achieve Edie's distinctive look with items similar to the ones above

I look forward to hearing your comments about Edie!