Americans in Paris: 8 Iconic Women Who Took Their Beauty Cues from the City of Light

Jackie Kennedy, 1974
Jackie Kennedy, 1974

With twelve nominations for this Sunday’s Tony Awards—including Best Musical—Christopher Wheeldon’s An American in Paris reimagines the classic tale of a young American who falls in love with (and on) the streets of the enchanting French city. And although the musical has roots in Gershwin’s symphonic poem of the same name, clandestine affairs with the City of Light have been pervasive since ex-pats began settling in the French capital in the 1920s.

Their adoration is easy to understand. For a certain troupe of American women who made a tradition of the European jaunt, Paris provided the freedom to become who they were meant to be, down to a garçonne-chic haircut—or a slick marcel wave. “Bronze Venus” Josephine Baker fled to France in a coup against the United States’s segregated audiences, eventually starring at the Folies Bergère, her oil-slicked hair and heavily lined eyes epitomizing the glamour of the era. American model Lee Miller also made her home in Paris in the 1920s, where she established herself as a photographer—Miller worked as a war correspondent for Vogue during WWII—and beauty icon, becoming muse to artist Man Ray.
A slight frame, bare face, and abbreviated blonde pixie marked Jean Seberg’s performance in 1960’s Breathless, which tells the story of a young American in Paris—a feat made easier as the actress was actually living there at the time. And Jackie O honed her iconic taste during a college semester at The Sorbonne, later strolling the city’s streets with a looser, longer, swingier version of her brushed-back bouffant and face-framing sunglasses.

The present day finds future classics like Natalie Portman and Lauren Santo Domingo strolling along the Rive Gauche as swanlike versions of themselves. In honor of the Tony-nominated musical, here, a look back at eight of the most memorable American beauties in Paris.

Isadora Duncan, 1904
Isadora Duncan, 1904
Jean Seberg, Breathless, 1960
Jean Seberg, Breathless, 1960
Josephine Baker, 1928
Josephine Baker, 1928

Lauren Santo Domingo, 2012
Lauren Santo Domingo, 2012
Natalie Portman, Hotel Chevalier, 2007
Natalie Portman, Hotel Chevalier, 2007
Lee Miller, 1928
Lee Miller, 1928
Pauline Rothschild, 1950
Pauline Rothschild, 1950

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