Alamy Stock Photo: INTERFOTO
Susan Sontag, 1993.
Born in New York in 1933, Susan Sontag studied at Harvard, Oxford, and the Sorbonne and became a novelist, playwright, peace activist, and academic. Her trademark was the streak of white running through her dark hair. Defying society as ever, Sontag grew more seductive with age. Rather than mask the grays, she made them a classic feature. As presumptuous a look as Cruella de Vil’s in 101 Dalmatians, Sontag’s stripe was blatant and bold. She knew that it looked great and added edgy value to her thick, glossy locks. Sontag was beautiful, and in later years, in an increasingly androgynous way. She grew into loose suiting teamed with flappy shirts and tennis shoes—accessorized, of course, with a scarf and that monochrome streak in her hair. This look, from the 1990s, is the one for which Sontag will be remembered.