Edie Sedgwick @ FashionState.Com

FashionState.Com salutes...

Socialite Superstar Muse

Edie Sedgwick

1943-1971

Edie Sedgwick, the leggy lady with the cropped, silver-streaked hair and big, snake-black eyes who jokingly called herself "Mrs. Warhol" and became the fabled pop artist's most beautiful and best-known "superstar" was not your average counterculture thrill-seeking kid bored with school and the middle-class tradition.

Edith Minturn Sedgwick was the seventh child of a brood of eight from a family known in the best social circles in New England (and later, California) for the "eccentric" ways that landed so many of them in hospitals, psychiatric wards, reclusive twilight years, or early graves. The obsession of Edie's emotionally unstable and insecure father to instill his views of perfection and his will upon his children severely tested all of them and they rebelled in various ways.

But their family's more fabled compulsions and self-destructive behavior patterns manifested themselves most distinctly in Edie and her two oldest brothers, both who died tragically and young as their sister continued her own excursions into mental hospitals in between the times she took a walk on the wild side.

Whether she was studying sculpture in Cambridge, reigning supreme as the prima donna of the New York pop art scene, modeling, hanging out with bikers, or working on movies, Edie coped with her demons by throwing herself into life in the same manner as a man playing chicken (or possessing a death wish) throws himself in front of an on-coming train. No matter who she managed to attract, her hyperactivity and excesses tended to surprise even the most hard-bitten and worldly of her circle.

She met her match in 1965 when she was introduced to Andy Warhol, who was keen on making this glittering socialite his superstar, and this oddly-matched couple became the sensation of the pop culture movement in New York. She became the muse of her mentor as well as Bob Dylan, among others who moved in Warhol's circle. In return, she became queen of Warhol's Factory, where she received plenty of attention, opportunities for sex, and a variety of drugs upon which she was to become fatally dependent.

After a falling-out with Warhol, a stint modeling for Diana Vreeland of "Vogue" and Betsey Johnson, her famed penchant for setting fire to her living quarters, and going in and out of psychiatric hospitals, Edie left New York to return to her home in Santa Barbara, where her past caught up with her when she was approached to finish a film project started a few years earlier which later became the cult film "Ciao! Manhattan".

Edie's drug problem could not be contained despite the efforts of her new husband, a recovering addict himself, to coax her to give up the dope and the cigarettes which she chain-smoked and which contributed to her increasingly failing health. It was not long after "Ciao! Manhattan" wrapped its shooting that Edie died of acute barbiturate intoxication in November of 1971. She was buried in a cemetery in San Marcos Pass, California, the obituaries announced the passing of a pop culture princess, and Edie seemed all but forgotten by a media that once tracked her every movement.

Interest in the life of this most unusual debutante was revitalized in 1982 when "Edie: An American Biography" was released. The compilation and editing of many years of interviews conducted by Jean Stein of Edie's family, friends, and acquaintances gave as close as a true history behind the enigma that was Edie Sedgwick as could be hoped for, although none of the subjects interrogated in the book could ever give a real reason why the "girl on fire" was driven by the self-destructive madness that at the same time attracted and appalled those who admired her so greatly.

But with the advent of the Internet and our current pop culture's inability to resist a glamorous and tragic muse, songs, poems, plays, and movies continue to this day about the legend and fashionable style of the tormented icon of the sixties decades after her death.

FashionState.Com's Portfolio of Edie

EDIE: WARHOL SUPERSTAR
EDIE: A PAPARAZZI'S DREAM
EDIE IN "CIAO! MANHATTAN"

LINKS - WEBSITES & FANSITES

Note: It is considered proper on-line protocol
to ask the site owners for permission
to copy and / or distribute photos from their sites.
Be sure to set your browsers to support Javascript, etc. and
avoid pop-ups, just in case!

Austin Chronicle
A reprint of an interview with Ondine (another Factory production) about his years with Warhol. Some great personal memories of Edie.

Betsey Johnson
The official site of Betsey Johnson, top pop fashion designer whose clothes Edie modeled and wore. Betsey is also featured on the commentary track of the DVD release of "Ciao! Manhattan".

Ciao Manhattan - The Edie Sedgwick Fanlisting
A small but recently-developed fanlist which includes a choice of cyber-buttons, photos, and a bio. Unfortunately, Brinkster's ad covers a portion of the text on the right-hand side of the screen, but perhaps new members to the fanlist could encourage the owners to find a freebie hosting site that doesn't impede with their work!

The Edie Sedgwick Internet Site
Stark, stunning website with many good photos and a detailed biography.

Factory Girl
Official website for the Edie biopic "Factory Girl".

Off Off Online
A review by Deidre McFadyen from June, 2004 of Peter Braunstein's off-Broadway play "Andy and Edie".

The Oscar Site
Very comprehensive site on Academy Award winners, with a bio on David Weisman, co-writer and co-director of "Ciao!", which also mentions his "Girl on Fire" project, a movie he intended to make about his experiences working with Edie.

PlanetOut.Com
Scroll down to read about "Ciao! Manhattan" creator David Weisman's brainchild to create an original screenplay about Edie.

Rondo Theatre: Fringe Festival 1998
A blurb about a multimedia stage production of a play entitled "Andy and Edie - Inside Warhol's Factory", which was written and directed by the stars Anton Binder and Polly Wiseman.

Sedgwick.Org - Sedgwick Genealogy Worldwide
The prestigious and far-flung Sedgwick clan has its own lineage website, with a short entry on Edie.

Sedgwick Reserve
Official website of the University of California Santa Barbara's Sedgwick Reserve - formerly Rancho La Laguna, where Edie and her family once lived.

Swingin' Chicks
Edie was a swingin' chick of the sixties like no other, so naturally there's a section on her at the renowned "Swingin' Chicks" site!

Ultrafab Edie Sedgwick
Want to talk about the lady with fellow Edie-maniacs? Catherine has come up with a message board, courtesy of ProBoards - which is rapidly becoming a hotbed of excellent fansites!

Warhol Stars
Awesome Warhol site - you can start browsing in this section on Edie, which has a comprehensive biography! Also has features on Edie's works with Warhol: "Kitchen", "Space", and "The Andy Warhol Story".

YouTube
This portion of the on-line home movie website features a mini-music video collage of Edie, plus links to other short clips featuring Andy Warhol's favorite "Poor Little Rich Girl".

Click here to visit the homepage of FASHIONSTATE.COM!

NOTE: This page utilizes the fonts Book Antiqua, Flowerchild, Calisto, Times New Roman, and Westminster. If you don't have them, download and install them if you want to see the original format of this page and have some nifty fonts in your collection as well! You can get them from WebpageFonts.com - CLICK HERE to get your fonts!

DISCLAIMER: No copyright ownership of these photos by me is implied whatsoever. This is a fansite with links to other fansites, and is NOT for profit.