Years Active: 1970-2000.
Known for: model, singer, actress.
Net worth: $7 million
Grace Jones was the It Girl who broke the mold. Like many on this list, she got her start as a model, and thanks to her unique masculine look, she got people to notice. However, she would then move on to music and release three albums during the seventies.
Her avant-garde concerts garnered her more attention, but she wasn’t about to let her star fall. She jumped into acting, and a talent for on-screen performances combined with her big name and striking looks landed her roles next to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Christopher Walken, and Halle Berry.
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Years active: 1934-1998.
Known for: Moulin Rouge (1952), extravagant lifestyle.
Net worth: $40 million.
This Budapest-born actress made her mark in the movie industry starting in the fifties, but she was much better-known because of her high spending, beauty, and her off-screen antics. Her undeniable good looks and electric persona led her to be married almost ten times, including once to Conrad Hilton Jr., heir of the Hilton hotels fortune.
In a perfect display of everything that is Zsa Zsa Gabor, she once said: “I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house.”
Caroline Astor
Years active: 1853-1903.
Known for: Marrying William Backhouse Astor Jr.
Net worth: $5 million.
Thanks to the money her family already had, Caroline Astor had plenty of freedom compared to women of the day. After marrying William Backhouse Astor Jr., she suddenly had the money, the clout, and the knowledge – her father had paid top dollar for Caroline's education – to do what she wanted.
Her place in high society grew so powerful that it was only at her word that the Vanderbilts were allowed entry into that same high society – which she did begrudgingly. They were new money, after all.
Tinsley Mortimer
Years active: 2000s.
Known for: Socialite, a descendant of Thomas Jefferson, fashion designer, actress.
Net worth: $35 million.
Tinsley Mortimer's face is a common sight around New York City. She hosted benefits, sat on committees, and even claimed to be descended from the closest thing the United States has to royalty, Thomas Jefferson. A brief scandal struck when rumors about Mortimer's father, who may or may not have been a simple rug salesman. The horror.
Mortimer married an oil heir, got her own reality show, had a bag line from Samantha Thavasa, had a cameo on " Gossip Girl", and was arrested in 2016 for trespassing on the property of sugar scion Alexander “Nico” Fanjul, with whom Mortimer had a rocky relationship.
Olivia Palermo
Years active: 2000-2010.
Known for: Socialite, blogger, designer, Instagram.
Net worth: $10 million.
Olivia Palermo made her entrance into the socialite life by taking on the queen of social circles at the time, and another It Girl on the list: Tinsley Mortimer. A New York cover story pitted this fresh twenty-year-old against Mortimer, and Olivia – the daughter of a real-estate developer and an interior decorator – went from socialite to model to blogger and designer.
She now boasts 3.8 million followers on Instagram, where she and her model husband Johannes Huebl put up pictures of their yachting, shows, and outfits.