Survived a custody battle that ranks up there with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger’s to become “not just a madcap author-actress-heiress” but a “pioneer of self-branding in general and of the big-money designer-jeans industry in particular.” Also brought a distinct spirit of free love to Park Avenue she called one of her more recent paramours a “Nijinsky of cunnilingus.” “By championing unglamorous causes like women’s sweatshops and prisoners’ wives, she was a very early model of the gritty do-gooderism now practiced globally by celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Bono.” Plus, “one of the first to famously marry into European aristocracy,” with her 1895 wedding to the Duke of Marlborough. “The most famous of Capote’s Swans” (CZ Guest, Slim Keith, Gloria Guinness), she had “flawlessly elegant style”-and was “a trailblazer in the murky terrain of New York society’s ethnic and religious prejudices,” marrying the Jewish Bill Paley. They don’t, as one respondent noted, make ’em like Babe anymore. (Not to be confused with Gertrude-she’s the one who started the Whitney.) And her inability to get a box at the (old) opera helped lead to the founding of the Met. Snubbed for a time by Caroline Astor, she got even (and accepted) by throwing a ball to end all balls, in 1883. “Famed suffragette” but also famous for her expert social maneuvering. Lambert know that her innovation would soon become a staple of-and a cash cow for-fashion magazines everywhere.” “One of the early social working ladies,” she invented the Best-Dressed List, way back in 1940. Like all socialites, this woman is a self-marketing genius, but on a much larger playing field.” “The socialite every socialite not so secretly wants to be, and the twentieth century’s greatest fashion icon, bar none.” What’s more, “she made it socially acceptable-even enviable- to marry a Greek billionaire.”Īs much as it pained some of our experts to say this (one crossed her name out altogether), Paris “belongs high up on this list because of the immense success she has had in parlaying minor, ‘Page Six’– and porno-fueled notoriety into inexorable global celebrity. “The grandmother of all socialites”-and, as such, “the original American snob.” Her “Four Hundred” was the “avatar of any subsequent ‘in’ crowd worthy of the name (e.g., the ‘in’ and ‘out’ lists Truman Capote drew up for his Black and White Ball).” No doubt socialite-ologists will cry foul over some entries-even our own experts may complain-but when it comes to the world of socialites, not everybody can make the cut. This list of the most influential socialites was put together after consulting several experts on the New York social scene, whose comments are below. T hey codified snobbery! They made careers out of fame! And they did some amazing things for this city (see the New York Public Library, the Met, etc.). Photo: Jeff Vespa/WireImage Ron Galella/WireImage

New york city socialites 2022