Warhol's Superstars

"Everything has its beauty," Andy Warhol once said. "But not everyone sees it." At the height of the sixties, the artist made hundreds of films starring a coterie of socialites, models, teenage ex-cons, transvestites, and street urchins. He called them his Superstars, and while they didn't always conform to Hollywood's definition of pretty, all of them were fabulous—a virtual requirement for making it through the door at the Factory. There were the mascara-loving It girls Nico and Edie Sedgwick, the glamorously aristocratic and voluminously blonde "Baby" Jane Holzer, and the tragic Ingrid Superstar, whose real name, life pre-Warhol, and unexplained disappearance are still shrouded in mystery. And don't forget Ultra Violet and Viva, the latter of whom was on the phone with Warhol when he was shot by Valerie Solanas.


But you don't have to hit the museum to watch the artist's legacy in motion. The makeup teams at Diane von Furstenberg and Victoria Beckham's Spring shows paid homage to Warhol and his movie muses, via electric pink lips and, yes, ultraviolet eye shadow.

Edie Sedgwick
Original It girl Edie Sedgwick turned up at the Factory in 1965 and became the best-known Warhol Superstar. Blame that on a super set of thick brows, gamine good looks, and patrician roots that made her a shoo-in for the starring role in Warhol'sPoor Little Rich Girl. After a falling out with Warhol, Sedgwick had a failed relationship with Bob Dylan and bounced in and out of mental institutions through the late sixties and early seventies. She died of a drug overdose at 28. 

Baby Jane Holzer
Jane Holzer sported a signature Bardot-style mane of thick blond hair parted on the side and plenty of liquid eyeliner, which earned the model and socialite a "most contemporary girl I know" accolade from legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. Holzer allegedly stayed away from the Factory because of all the drugs, but did appear in one of Warhol's most substance-addled films, Ciao Manhattan, in 1972, before becoming an art collector and a real estate mogul like her father. 

Candy Darling
Big-eyed and long-lashed, Queens-born transsexual Candy Darling (a.k.a. James Lawrence Slattery) met Warhol in 1967 and was swiftly cast in his film Flesh the following year. In 1971, she starred in his poorly received Women in Revolt, but her fame had already been secured via steady gigs in drag shows at clubs like Max's Kansas City. Before she passed away of leukemia in 1974, Candy had a scene with Jane Fonda in Klute to her credit, as well as three hit songs penned in her honor: the Rolling Stones' "Citadel," the Velvet Underground's "Candy Says," and Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side." 

Bibbe Hansen
Speaking of famous spawn, Warhol Superstar Bibbe Hansen is also known as "Mom" to recording artist Beck. As the story goes, a 13-year-old Hansen met Warhol at Stark's coffee shop in1965, directly after her father, artist Al Hansen, had picked her up from a stint in juvenile detention. Fascinated, Warhol based his film Prison on her story and cast her in subsequent film projects, includingRestaurant. 

Ultra Violet 
Ultra Violet, a.k.a. the French-born Isabelle Collin Dufresne, was more patron than muse. A former studio assistant to Salvatore Dalí and associate of Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso, she is said to have walked into the Factory in 1965 in a pink Chanel suit and purchased a still-wet painting for $500. "She was past a certain age, but she was still beautiful; she looked a lot like Vivien Leigh," Warhol said. 

Ingrid Superstar
Almost every detail about the woman known as Ingrid Superstar is sketchy, from her real name to the circumstances around which she arrived at the factory. Sources generally agree she was from New Jersey and working as an office temp when she was brought in to show an increasingly disagreeable Edie Sedgwick that she was replaceable. According to poet and artist René Ricard, she was picked up at a bar on 42nd Street and given an "ugly Edie" makeover. She would score film credits in Warhol's Chelsea Girls andThe Nude Restaurant before she went missing in the late eighties. 

Enjoy :)

Cakki <3