Runway

Remembering the Original It Girl, Clara Bow, on Her Birthday

By Laird Borrelli-Persson
  • Clara Bow
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    Photo: Cineclassico / Alamy Stock Photo
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    Clara Bow

  • Clara Bow
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    Photo Hulton Archive / Getty Images
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    Bow, here with her dukes up, donned boxing gloves in Rough House Rosie (1927).

  • Clara Bow
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    Photo: Donaldson Collection / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
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    Bow glams it up, circa 1927.

  • Clara Bow
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    Photo: © CORBIS via Getty Images
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    Bow in My Lady of Whims (1925).

  • Bow was a selfdescribed tomboy
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    Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection
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    Bow, a self-described tomboy, poses in a necktie and suspenders for The Wild Party (1931).

  • Clara Bow
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    Photo: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo
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    Bow was film’s quintessential flapper.

Christian Lacroix is Laird Borrelli-Persson’s fashion raison d’etre; the way he combined romance and historicism set her on the path she is following today. Borrelli-Persson studied literature at Boston College, spending her junior year abroad at Oxford, where she added some art history. After graduation she moved to New York to intern ... Read More
TopicsActress