Move Over, Marilyn: The Search For A New Style Icon

By Hortense Smith | February 7, 2010 | 8:00pm

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In yet another “homage” to the fallen star, Paris Hilton has decided to channel Marilyn Monroe for her latest perfume campaign. Completely burned out by the Marilyn and Audrey tribute brigade, I’ve compiled a list of new style icons:

Jerri Blank: Sure, she might have been a “user, a boozer, and a loser” at one point in her life, but look how she’s turned it around! Jerri Blank is a mess and a delight, and her style is completely original and totally underrated. She can accessorize and layer like nobody else, and could easily feel at home wearing Missoni knits or the knock-off versions one can purchase at H&M. And who can deny these powerful words: “Maybe it’s time to stop not doing what you pretended you can do and can’t, and start doing the thing that you can’t do, but can no longer pretend that you can.” So deep, you know? Plus, it would be hilarious and amazing to watch starlets attempt to make “Jerri Blank Face” instead of the usual sexyface, wouldn’t it?

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The Designing Women: The main problem with the now-fading 80s revival was the hipster refusal to actually commit 100% to the look, which meant that big, big hair somehow fell by the wayside. Just once, I’d like to see someone with the guts to do an Ogilvy home perm, slap on some frosty pink lipstick, and wear a suit like Suzanne Sugarbaker’s with the kind of confidence required to pull it off without the shoot swerving into parody. Also? Anything Annie Potts wore in any film or television show she made in the 1980s is total style icon material.

[Image via Designing Women Online/]

Rayanne Graff: The barrettes! The flannel! The highlights! The bad attitude covering up a sad heart! The mixing of patterns! The one night stint as a rock singer! With the 90s revival in full swing, I’m sure we’ll see a ton of faux-Graffs in fashion spreads, though I’m not sure anyone can pull off the single braid look quite like she can. Nor can they dispense gems like this: “Everything causes a scar – LIVING causes a scar.”

Lisa Turtle:Lisa Turtle lives and breathes fashion, and is easily the best dressed girl at Bayside High, rocking neons and crazy accessories like no one else. She’s so fashionable that she even ends up getting into FIT, where, in a dream imaginary world, she graduated at the top of her class and is now showing at NYC Fashion Week on a regular basis.

Mad Madam Mim: Sure, she may not fit the traditional definition of glamour, but she knows she’s magnificent and marvelous, and though she can turn herself into a beauty queen, she also not afraid to make herself uglier just to intimidate others. In short, she doesn’t give a fuck what you think of her. We need more style icons like that, no?

Stacey McGill/Claudia Kishi: See those two fierce bitches in the front row? Yeah, they’re rocking tourist t-shirts in NYC. And they look totally badass and awesome doing it. Do you know how hard that is to pull off? You need McGill/Kishi style techniques to make the ordinary extraordinary. You also need them to pull off giant plastic earrings shaped like ice cream cones and walruses dancing at the mall, or whatever crazy accessory one of these ladies feels like designing and rocking hard on the streets of Stoneybrook.

The Golden Girls: Obviously.

Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments!

Paris Hilton Channels Marilyn Monroe For New Fragrance [Independent]