- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Virago; New edition edition (July 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1844080498
- ISBN-13: 978-1844080496
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 12.6 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 440 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
'Lindy Woodhead's riveting and thoroughly researched biography of Rubinstein and Arden, is a work of chutzpah in its own right ... the definitive biography of women and their relationships to their faces in the twentieth century' GUARDIAN 'Lindy Woodhead, who has a nice line in neatly turned phrases and in well-aimed sideswipes herself, has written about these two slap- dragons with humorous sensitivity and sympathy' LITERARY REVIEW 'what a relief it is to read so detailed, well researched and competent a book... Woodhead knows her stuff and takes it seriously' Sunday Times 'One of Woodhead's strengths is that she takes the beauty business very seriously' (Evening Standard) 'Glamorous Battleaxes make good copy. Feuding ones are better still. Given a title like WAR PAINT ... one is all set for a tale of glamour-dripping
Product Description
War Paint is the story of two remarkable women - Miss Elizabeth Arden and Madame Helena Rubinstein. Between them they left an extraordinary legacy which touches the lives of virtually all women today: the creation of the modern cosmetics and beauty industry. War Paint will trace the humble beginnings of both Arden and Rubinstein and examine the forces and influences that drove them. The book will also look at the period in which they lived, without which their phenomenal achievement cannot be truly appreciated. The similarities between the two are intriguing: dedicated to beauty, neither were great beauties themselves. They were both diminutive in size, if not in the size of their ego. They were both born into genteel poverty and were motivated by money and the creation of their businesses, to the exclusion of almost everything else. They were both avid social climbers and desperately thrifty. They also hated each other. This is the story of an industry, of a social movement and of a great rivalry. Gripping, glamorous and totally absorbing, this is social history at its best.
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First Sentence
DURING THE EARLY EVENING of Friday 29 April, 1966, in an atmosphere of tense, almost palpitating excitement, over seven hundred people were gathered in the Madison Avenue premises of New York's prestigious Parke-Bernet Galleries. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
DURING THE EARLY EVENING of Friday 29 April, 1966, in an atmosphere of tense, almost palpitating excitement, over seven hundred people were gathered in the Madison Avenue premises of New York's prestigious Parke-Bernet Galleries. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
War Paint,
By A Customer
This review is from: War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry (Hardcover)
This is such a juicy story. Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein were two glamorous divas, who come to life and the stories of their personal and business lives are fascinating. The author describes the rivalry between these two women with rich details, describing how their animosity fueled their growing empires. The story is even more interesting because of the times in which they lived, and Woodhead does a great job of explaining their very glamorous social circles. I can't wait to share this book with my friends, especially those who love fashion.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews) 24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
War Paint,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry (Hardcover)
This is such a juicy story. Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein were two glamorous divas, who come to life and the stories of their personal and business lives are fascinating. The author describes the rivalry between these two women with rich details, describing how their animosity fueled their growing empires. The story is even more interesting because of the times in which they lived, and Woodhead does a great job of explaining their very glamorous social circles. I can't wait to share this book with my friends, especially those who love fashion.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two Women With Similar Ideals,
By Kevin Killian - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry (Hardcover)
Rubinstein and Arden had a rivalry that you might compare to that of Jack Benny and Fred Allen--i.e. one largely conducted for publicity reasons. Lindy Woodhead has donesome amazing research, can you imagine, she spent months kneeling on the floors of Krakow parishes to find just the right birth certificate for Helena (nee Chaja) Rubinstein--not an easy thing to do, especially given the fact that Rubinstein lied about her age by several years! And in every case Woodhead goes the extra nine yards to try to distinguish what is true and what is false about her two millionairesses. They were among the first to sell American women the "culture of beauty," to insist that the cosmetics they sold would bring the consumer a whole zeitgeist of pleasure, not just individual beauty treatments. To this end they conspired with Madison Avenue and devised decades worth of intriguing, perhaps misleading advertisements.In the end what lets us down is the feeling that perhaps the two women aren't actually that different, and it gets confusing trying to remember their slight differences--which of the two was four feet ten, while the other was five foot two? A depressing business saga of how the mass public can be manipulated with great success, but they will pay you back in the most final way--they will forget you as soon as you're not alive any more. 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Book,
By Dwight Dekeyser "Dwight in DC" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden: Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry (Hardcover)
I've waited thirty years for this book and I was not disappointed. I have read separate biographies of Rubenstein, Arden, Lauder, and Revson; this is by far the best. If you have any interest in beauty, glamor, art, social history, fashion, business or just a good story about two extraordinary women who created empires out of nothing, this book is for you.
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