Who is Clara Bow, the Original It Girl Referenced in Taylor Swift's Newest Album?
Whether you're looking for the lowdown on Clara Bow after listening to The Tortured Poets Department or simply in search of an excuse to browse vintage photos of the fashion muse, L'OFFICIEL's got you covered.
Thanks to Taylor Swift's newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, 1920s actress and fashion muse Clara Bow has been the Internet's latest fascination—and we can't blame them. In her latest release, Swift added a track titled "Clara Bow" as the final song on the album. Fans have taken to social media to speculate the meaning behind the lyrics of the song, where Swift softly sings:
"You look like Clara Bow
In this light, remarkable
All your life, did you know
You'd be picked like a rose?"
While the singer's new track has sparked a renewed interest in Clara Bow, the 1920s Hollywood ingenue, what many Swifties don't know is that almost a hundred years before Taylor enjoyed It Girl status as a beloved star, Clara Bow coined the term. Curious to know more about the history of the original It Girl? Join L'OFFICIEL in diving into the actress' career, rise to fame, and legacy.
While her career got off to a slow start, Bow earned the recognition she needed to jumpstart her star status after appearing in the 1922 film, Down to the Sea in Ships. Although she wasn't billed as a starring actress, her impassioned performance earned the film positive reviews from critics.
Following the success of Down to the Sea in Ships and the acknowledgment of her talent in the eyes of the public, Bow moved to California in 1923, and it was there, in the mid-'20s Hollywood scene that her career truly flourished.
"For the first time in my life I knew there was beauty in the world. For the first time I saw distant lands, serene, lovely homes, romance, nobility, glamor," Bow said in a 1929 interview. "I always had a queer feeling about actors and actresses on the screen ... I knew I would have done it differently. I couldn't analyze it, but I could always feel it".
Bow acted in several short films and silent movies before being cast in Grit, a 1924 silent film written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film was a critical and commercial success and served to further Bow's growing influence in the entertainment world of the 1920s. Aside from her alluring appearance, the actress was renowned for her impressive on-screen presence, and her dynamic energy and range of emotion were often praised by industry professionals and critics alike. "Clara Bow lingers in the eye, long after the picture has gone," wrote Variety in a 1924 review of Grit.
In 1924, Clara Bow starred in Maytime, an adaptation of a popular operetta, which marked her first true Hollywood film. Not long after arriving in California, Bow was cast by director Frank Lloyd—one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—as the high-society, glamorous flapper Janet Oglethorp in Black Oxen. "Bow is the personification of the ideal aristocratic flapper, mischievous, pretty, aggressive, quick-tempered and deeply sentimental," Lloyd told the press after casting her.
A busy young actress, Bow acted in countless films per year during this period in her life, with each project seemingly inching her closer and closer to the star status she sought. Aside from her enchanting on-screen presence, Bow became widely recognized for her stunning looks and mischievous personality.
"She radiates sex appeal tempered with an impish sense of humor ... She hennas her blond hair so that it will photograph dark in the pictures ... Her social decorum is of that natural, good-natured, pleasantly informal kind," wrote Alma Whitaker of the Los Angeles Times in 1924. "She can act on or off the screen—takes a joyous delight in accepting a challenge to vamp any selected male—the more unpromising specimen the better. When the hapless victim is scared into speechlessness, she gurgles with naughty delight and tries another."
After she became an established star, a darling of the Hollywood press, and idol to thousands of adoring fans, Bow began to experiment with her image. By playing up her tomboy image—which had earned her numerous roles, especially early on in her career—and dabbling in traditionally masculine styles of dress, she emerged as a star confident and secure in her own sexuality and the ideal image of the modern woman.
While it may be common sense to assume Bow's celebrity, buzzed-about sensual appeal, and talent elevated her to It Girl status, in actuality, the actress was dubbed an "It Girl" because of her famous role in the 1927 film It. "You can't get away from this Clara Bow girl. She certainly has that certain 'It'...and she just runs away with the film," wrote a critic for Variety after an early screening of the film that same year. While all of our favorite It girls of today possess the same dynamic, alluring je ne sais quoi, Clara Bow was the original Hollywood actress for which the term was invented.
