beautiful people

Stylish, glamorous, and often wealthy people admired by others. I wish we were as cool as them—man, they are really the beautiful people.

The fashionable social set, individuals who are in vogue and widely emulated and envied. Although general use of this term began in the mid-1960s—Diana Vreeland, the editor of Vogue magazine, is often credited with inventing it—it appeared even earlier as the title of a William Saroyan play of 1941. It was given further currency by the Beatles song “Baby You’re a Rich Man” (1967) by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, which contains the line, “How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?” Katherine Hall Page used the phrase in her mystery The Body in the Big Apple (1999), with its numerous descriptions of expensive New York restaurants and elegant parties. Also see jet set.