Sofia Richie: Nepo Baby to Motherhood Muse
By Isabella Redjai
One can only dream of having their baby announcement on the front cover of Vogue. Only the ultimate it-girl could make that dream a reality. Sofia Richie Grainge recently shared that she is expecting a baby girl with her music executive husband Elliot Grainge in an exclusive interview and cover shoot for Vogue’s February 2024 issue.
Grainge married her beau on April 22, 2023 in the South of France. Less than a year later, their dynasty grows with Grainge as a mother-to-be.
As the daughter of a rockstar, sister to a fashion designer and reality TV star, and the former lover of some of the most eligible bachelors in Los Angeles, Grainge has always charted a Hollywood-adjacent path. Many wondered: what would be next for the emerging icon?
While that may have been a question people asked when she first entered the scene about a decade ago, her prestige is now well-established. Grainge today is not only a socialite, entrepreneur, influencer, and brand, but a cultural muse for young women.
It wasn’t Grainge dating Scott Disick or Justin Bieber that elevated her to this status, but her reinvention and packaging of a refined lifestyle that time forgot.
An internet trend, dubbed the “Old Money aesthetic,” sparked the Richie revival. Rather than sport skin-tight clothing or the illusion of not wearing pants (sorry, not sorry), the then-24-year-old initiated a return to flattering, feminine features such as the Chanel tweed suit, slingback block heels, and a sleek up-do. It felt like a step back in time. TikTok and Instagram influencers took note.
Chanel designed Grainge’s wedding dress, and her iconic slingbacks became a key part of women’s wardrobes in the fall of 2023.
Matrimony has become central to Grainge’s identity and branding. Grainge has not only made marriage at 24 years old seem like a possibility in 2024, but a beautiful, sophisticated, and desirable one at that.
Now, an expectant Grainge has done the same thing for motherhood.
Since Sex and the City taught that women can be serial daters with no commitment or consequences, traditional God-given norms for marriage, sex, and family life have been reduced to old wive’s tales in pop culture. It was especially surprising, therefore, to see an A-list celebrity lead the way back.
It should give us hope that someone who dated a Kardashian’s ex could create a modern mainstream model for getting married young, starting a family, and doing it all while looking fabulous and building a brand that many women between 21 and 30 are trying to imitate.
However, I believe it’s a mistake to think that Grainge’s pregnancy will persuade millions of girls to finally settle down, get married, and have babies. Although noble goals — that perhaps could reverse the declining birth rate — marriage and motherhood should not be diminished to a mere “trend.”
Many right-wing “trad” X accounts have erred in portraying these vocations as women’s only true purpose—a grim utilitarian view. God intended for women to be supporting wives and nurturing mothers, yet there’s a transcendental thing that brings it all meaning. I think Grainge captures it: beautiful legacy.
In the Grainge evolution that went from “SoCal girl about town” to “Old Money,” there was a tone shift not only in her aesthetics but in her quality of life.
She went from nepo-baby to it-girl.
She went from dating Los Angeles bad boys to deciding to date someone who would want to put a ring on it.
Her aesthetics didn’t mimic fleeting standards of “cool” but manifested a personal style that gave a reminiscent outlook on silhouettes that embodied class and good taste of yesteryear.
Instead of living off her family’s name, Grainge became an entrepreneur, pursuing fashion design, serving as an ambassador for classic designers such as Chanel and David Yurman, and developing her own self-care and wellness branding.
She made key choices in her life that took her from being just another Hollywood twenty-something-year-old to being an inspiration to young women everywhere.
If she hadn’t decided to carve her own niche, offer something different across the mainstream feed, and remind girls of what used to be good in terms of fashion and, more importantly, womanhood, then maybe we wouldn’t have taken note.
As little girls, we would “play house” and take care of our baby dolls, having that instinctual urge to nurture and be a homemaker. But who was it that we were imitating? Who were our first influencers? Our own mothers (or mothers whom we looked up to).
Many of us were lucky to have mothers who demonstrated what it looked like to “do it all.” They never preached about how to be a good mother or wife. They lived it out. They created a legacy for womanhood. They influenced us, even in our childhood, to create legacy too.
Now, as she’s cultivated her own legacy as a wife, businesswoman, and tastemaker, Grainge is modeling a different but special type of legacy in becoming a mother to her future daughter.
By choosing a different road than the one that is often en vogue in Hollywood, and not waiting to have kids until it’s too late to turn back the clock, Grainge has become a powerful messenger of virtue for women today. Without saying a word, Grainge has shown the beauty of marriage and motherhood with just a few photos in Vogue — each worth a thousand words.
Isabella Redjai is a podcast producer who lives in New York City. She can be found on Twitter: @IsabellaRedjai.
