The formula for a modern-day It-girl is both something of an enigma and pretty simple. That is, you either have “it” or you don’t. One person who certainly does is Apple Martin: a 21-year-old student with a private Instagram account, who was not long ago branded a “mean girl” after she was caught on camera apparently rolling her eyes at Le Bal des Débutantes back in December. (Which is precisely the kind of behavior I want to see from an Upper East Side scion who just so happens to be the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow.)
Jason Kempin
And, well, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. This afternoon, Martin was photographed meandering across the campus of Vanderbilt University–where she majors in law, history, and society–wearing straight-legged jeans and a minuscule Prada bag that could have accompanied her mother throughout the ’90s, with a cropped Self-Portrait T-shirt and block-heeled Repetto ballerina flats à la Lily-Rose Depp. In other words, the de facto Nepo-Girl (complimentary) uniform of 2025. See also: the wired headphones, a studied but subtle signal that says, “I am effortless in how I navigate the world.”
On the subject of fashion, Martin recently sat down with Interview magazine, where she interned in 2023: “I feel like my style hasn’t been fully actualized yet, but I’m slowly getting more into it,” she explained. “I pull a lot from the ’90s supermodel vibe.” It’s an effort that will boosted by A) her own preternatural beauty, and B) her own mother’s wardrobe. “I’ll sneak into her closet and steal little things. My absolute favorite stuff is her old Calvin Klein from the ’90s. I have a lot of it and it’s the best thing in the world,” she continued. “Going into her archive closet is just heaven on earth.” Time to pull out the Tom Ford-era Gucci.
