As someone said, good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere. That’s why today’s post is dedicated to the Bad Girl.

We will retrace the figure of the bad girl in the twentieth century through the icons that have best embodied the myth:

TWENTIES

This decade shows us an incredibly modern woman, even by our standards: free and emancipated, with an androgynous figure and a strong, but no less feminine, look.

Coco Chanel is our bad girl for this decade: daring and courageous, she broke all the rules, in fashion as in life.

THIRTIES

Even the 30’s propose many bad girls for their unconventional and scandalous life, for their free and often ambiguous sexuality, for their ability to provoke and seduce.

The list of bad girls in the 1930s is far too long, but Mae West is the most ironic and irreverent of them all. Here some of her hilarious quotes:

FOURTIES

More than bad girls, in the 40s we have the femmes fatales: a disturbing, dangerous and extremely seductive protagonist of the various noir movies of the period.

For this decade we can elect Katherine Hepburn. It was not just a fatal, but also a sophisticated style icon. And above all a free woman, who still has a lot to teach today:

FIFTIES

The ideal of woman in the 50s is so seductive, but rather reassuring: romantic and naughty, sometimes naive.

The bad girl was therefore far from the prototype wife that the society had built, so the scandalous Bettie Page is a pretty good exception.

SIXTIES

It was difficult to choose a reference icon for the 60s, which started a disruptive political and cultural revolution.

Jane Birkin well represents the bad girls of that generation. I will not elaborate on why: I only tell you that her famous song Je t’aime … moi non plus earned a papal excommunication …

SEVENTIES

If the ’60s ignited the spark, the’ 70s were a real bomb: freedom as a philosophy of life.

The icons of this decade are all bad girls, one way or another. But if we must mention one for all, the name that arises spontaneously is that of Jerry Hall, the queen of Studio 54.

EIGHTIES

And then there are the bad girls of the ’80s, hedonistic years, rich and shameless.

Who better than Madonna can represent them? Not only because at that time she made her debut, but because she did it with a force and a disruptive look. Madonna is a very bad girl and this has made it a myth still unsurpassed.

NINETIES

Society changes, and so fashion and values. But the charm of the bad girl remains.

Here there is no race, the bad girl of the 90s is Kate Moss. Unpredictable, provocative, ambiguous; she has revolutionized the aesthetic paradigms, and not just those.

How can you not love bad girls ?!

I find them inspiring! Not to exalt a reckless life and completely without rules… What I love is that they have been able to rebel against that role in which society, yesterday like today, wants to relegate women.

And they did it head-on, with courage and even a lot of style!

Come si fa a non amare le cattive ragazze?!

Rossella Migliaccio
Italian Image Institute