{"id":641349,"date":"2026-10-09T15:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/641349\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T15:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:56:10","slug":"privileged-and-proud-how-nepo-babies-took-fashion-month-by-storm-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/641349\/","title":{"rendered":"Privileged and proud: how nepo babies took fashion month by storm | Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Knee-length skirts and bras worn as tops<\/a> were two of the main takeaways from fashion month, which wrapped up this week. But the biggest trend had nothing to do with clothing. From New York and London to Milan and Paris, the shows were the ultimate proof of a nepo baby takeover.<\/p>\n

John Travolta\u2019s daughter, Ella Bleu, 26, made her Paris catwalk debut at Miu Miu<\/a>. Apple Martin, 22, the daughter of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow, walked the Chlo\u00e9 show.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Vogue World event in Milan featured the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli\u2019s son Matteo, 29, Nick and Susie Cave\u2019s son Earl, 26, Ava Phillippe, 27, the daughter of the actors Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, and many more nepo babies in attendance.<\/p>\n

Ava Phillippe at Vogue World: Milano 2026 at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy. Photograph: Stefania M D\u2019Alessandro\/Getty Images for Vogue<\/p>\n

Mark Borkowski, a PR consultant, described the nepo baby phenomenon as \u201ca wonderful cocktail of youth, nostalgia and inherited glamour\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fran Hoepfner, the author of The Field Guide to Nepo Babies, said it was vital that a nepo had both a family connection and a direct or adjacent industry connection. \u201cSimply having rich parents does not automatically make someone a nepo baby,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just makes you lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously, the children of famous people tended to downplay their family connections or even change their surnames. Nicolas Cage was born Coppola \u2013 his uncle is the legendary US film-maker \u2013 while Angelina Jolie dropped the Voight from her surname in an attempt to distance herself from her actor father, Jon Voight.<\/p>\n

Ella Bleu Travolta modelling for Miu Miu at Paris fashion week. Photograph: Estrop\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

According to Borkowski, we are now seeing play out \u201cthe industrialisation of inherited fame\u201d. He described it as a cultural shift. \u201cFor years people tried to escape from the shadow of their parents because it actually hindered their career. Now they are no longer apologising for their privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicole Kidman brought her daughter Faith Urban, 15, to Chanel, while The Diplomat star Keri Russell\u2019s plus one at the Louis Vuitton show was her 13-year-old daughter, Willa. Elsewhere, the supermodels Karen Elson and Kristen McMenamy danced with their daughters Scarlett Teresa White, 20, and Lily McMenamy, 32, on the H&M catwalk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Four years after New York magazine declared 2022 the \u201cyear of the nepo baby\u201d<\/a>, the boom is showing no sign of slowing down. The appeal for brands is simple: the casting of a nepo instantly captures mass audience attention.<\/p>\n

Matteo Bocelli, son of the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, at Vogue World. Photograph: Valentina S Frugiuele\/Getty Images for Vogue<\/p>\n

It is not limited only to fashion. The new Sense and Sensibility<\/a>\u2019s film credits read like a nepo roll-call. Samantha Morton\u2019s daughter Esm\u00e9 Creed-Miles plays Marianne Dashwood, while Sting\u2019s non-binary child Eliot Sumner stars as Mr Palmer. Meanwhile, Cillian Murphy\u2019s son Aran is currently on TV screens as Sharon Horgan\u2019s son in Youth, and Kate Winslet\u2019s son Joe Anders stars in Netflix\u2019s adaptation of John Steinbeck\u2019s 1952 novel East of Eden.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a marketing tool,\u201d Borkowski said. \u201cCasting an unknown model or actor is one thing, but casting the daughter of a Hollywood legend gives a brand all that inherited fame and decades of cultural recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The internet has been crucial to the nepo baby coup. In an age where anyone with a phone and internet access can become famous, why not lean into those existing famous family roots? \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have any real talent to develop a fanbase,\u201d Borkowski said.<\/p>\n

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Nicole Kidman with her daughter Faith Urban at the Chanel show in Paris. Photograph: Swan Gallet\/WWD\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In 2023 Romy Mars, the daughter of the film-maker Sofia Coppola and musician Thomas Mars, went viral after posting about being grounded because she had tried to charter a helicopter to have dinner with a friend using her father\u2019s credit card.<\/p>\n

In the now deleted video, she also revealed she wasn\u2019t meant to have a social media account. \u201cThey don\u2019t want me to be a nepotism kid but TikTok is not gonna make me famous, so it doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d she said. Three years later she has amassed nearly 800,000 followers, starred in a film directed by her grandfather and released an album. Her debut music video was directed by her mum.<\/p>\n

Hoepfner described Mars\u2019s behaviour as \u201csheer nepo baby perfection\u201d. She said today\u2019s generation had \u201clearned lessons from their older millennial peers, who either deflected or tried to play off their privilege with some degree of false humility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Francesca Scorsese is a budding actor and film-maker, but it is her TikTok videos starring her Goodfellas director dad, Martin, that have led to millions of followers. In one, she asks him to identify \u201cfeminine items\u201d including a menstrual cup, which Scorsese mistakes for a drinks container; in another, she tests him on gen Z slang.<\/p>\n

Even if someone does try to move beyond their family name, they often continue to leverage their connections. In January, in a six-page Instagram statement, Brooklyn Beckham said he was cutting ties with his parents. That decision led to him becoming more famous than ever. Borkowski described the continuing attention that unfolded as a cross between \u201cthe Big Brother house and a soap opera\u201d, with fans of each member of the family waiting to see what happened next.<\/p>\n

Hoepfner said: \u201cThe fact of the matter is that there\u2019s nothing they can really do about the fact that they\u2019re a nepo baby, so they might as well own it. The best way to go about that at this point might as well be by doing it brazenly, with some degree of style or panache \u2013 especially if they aren\u2019t really sorry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n