Some History and Background on Elizabeth Arden.
Elizabeth Arden, originally named Florence Nightingale Graham, was born in 1884 near Toronto Canada. She was fourth of five children of a Scottish grocer. She was a late bloomer in the sense that she worked a host of odd jobs before she started to realize her true mission and profession at age 30. The young woman had always been an innovator and experimenter, imbued with the idea that from many common substances, mostly medicines, salves, and herbs, could become beauty aids. She arrived in New York in 1908 and started anew the experimentations she had originally performed in the kitchen the house where she grew up.
With the help of a chemist friend she virtually originated the concept of a “beauty cream”. Her first product offerings were promoted through her Fifth Avenue Beauty “Salon” (she rejected the word “Parlor” as having too much of a “homey” connotation) which also sported a big red door, to make it stand out among the hoards of other businesses in Manhattan’s fashion center. She soon outgrew her single location salon and, because of the demand she had created, started to make her cosmetic creams available for resale by others, but only in the most prestigious and elegant retail environments worldwide.
On her first trip to Paris in 1912, Miss Arden noticed what foreign women of fashion wore; rouges, lacquers, and eyeliners. On her return to New York she introduced color cosmetics to her Fifth Avenue Clientele. Soon make up, with had only been
suitable for use by women of the stage, became a fashion staple.
She married Thomas Lewis in 1918. This long suffering lover and partner acted as her business manager until their divorce in 1935. Since Arden never allowed her own husband to hold stock, he eventually went to work for Arden’s rival Helena Rubinstein.
It was during the period of retail expansion that she conceived of the idea of her “Beauty Ambassador-esses”, or those well-trained and stylish in store female promoters of her high end products.
By the 1930's, it was said that there were only three American names known in every corner of the globe: Singer Sewing Machines, Coca-Cola, and Elizabeth Arden. Elizabeth Arden opened the Maine Chance Beauty Resort in 1934 and created and launched her first fragrance in 1935. Blue Grass Perfume by Elizabeth Arden is a sweet floral fragrance that combines scents of carnation, jasmine, narcissus, sandalwood, musk, lavender, neroli, and bergamot for a memorable fragrance. In 1939, Elizabeth Arden became the first cosmetics company to create advertising for movie houses. Elizabeth Arden was always a trendsetter while being reactive to the upheavals of change in American society. With World War II, she recognized the changing needs of American women as they entered the workforce in masses. As the war progressed, she came up with acceptable ways of applying makeup for work and dressing appropriately for careers outside the home. To support women in the armed forces, she even created a red lipstick, Montezuma Red, to precisely match the red trim on their uniforms. Through it all, she had an unfailing commitment to quality and excellence. She was known to never introduce a product until it was perfected to her high standards, from ingredients to packaging.
In 1942 she married Prince Michael Evlonoff, only to be divorced in 1944. In 1945 Elizabeth Arden introduced couture clothing to her salon. The first collection was designed by Charles James. To follow were fashion moguls such as Antonio Castillo, Fernando Sarmi and Oscar de la Renta. At the time of Miss Arden's death in October 1966, the Elizabeth Arden Company was grossing an estimated $60 million per year. In her lifetime, she built an empire consisting of 17 different Elizabeth Arden corporations and 40 Salons worldwide. Elizabeth Arden invented the American beauty industry.
Arden, owner of over 100 salons in America and Europe almost always dressed in pink and created and manufactured about 300 cosmetics and fragrance products. She was politically conservative and a hard businesswoman. Above all, she was an
animal lover; so much in fact that one of her contemporaries said of her;
“She treated her women like horses and her horses like women”,
insisting that her own beauty preparations be used instead of horse liniment.
Elizabeth Arden, originally named Florence Nightingale Graham, was born in 1884 near Toronto Canada. She was fourth of five children of a Scottish grocer. She was a late bloomer in the sense that she worked a host of odd jobs before she started to realize her true mission and profession at age 30. The young woman had always been an innovator and experimenter, imbued with the idea that from many common substances, mostly medicines, salves, and herbs, could become beauty aids. She arrived in New York in 1908 and started anew the experimentations she had originally performed in the kitchen the house where she grew up.
With the help of a chemist friend she virtually originated the concept of a “beauty cream”. Her first product offerings were promoted through her Fifth Avenue Beauty “Salon” (she rejected the word “Parlor” as having too much of a “homey” connotation) which also sported a big red door, to make it stand out among the hoards of other businesses in Manhattan’s fashion center. She soon outgrew her single location salon and, because of the demand she had created, started to make her cosmetic creams available for resale by others, but only in the most prestigious and elegant retail environments worldwide.
On her first trip to Paris in 1912, Miss Arden noticed what foreign women of fashion wore; rouges, lacquers, and eyeliners. On her return to New York she introduced color cosmetics to her Fifth Avenue Clientele. Soon make up, with had only been
suitable for use by women of the stage, became a fashion staple.
She married Thomas Lewis in 1918. This long suffering lover and partner acted as her business manager until their divorce in 1935. Since Arden never allowed her own husband to hold stock, he eventually went to work for Arden’s rival Helena Rubinstein.
It was during the period of retail expansion that she conceived of the idea of her “Beauty Ambassador-esses”, or those well-trained and stylish in store female promoters of her high end products.
By the 1930's, it was said that there were only three American names known in every corner of the globe: Singer Sewing Machines, Coca-Cola, and Elizabeth Arden. Elizabeth Arden opened the Maine Chance Beauty Resort in 1934 and created and launched her first fragrance in 1935. Blue Grass Perfume by Elizabeth Arden is a sweet floral fragrance that combines scents of carnation, jasmine, narcissus, sandalwood, musk, lavender, neroli, and bergamot for a memorable fragrance. In 1939, Elizabeth Arden became the first cosmetics company to create advertising for movie houses. Elizabeth Arden was always a trendsetter while being reactive to the upheavals of change in American society. With World War II, she recognized the changing needs of American women as they entered the workforce in masses. As the war progressed, she came up with acceptable ways of applying makeup for work and dressing appropriately for careers outside the home. To support women in the armed forces, she even created a red lipstick, Montezuma Red, to precisely match the red trim on their uniforms. Through it all, she had an unfailing commitment to quality and excellence. She was known to never introduce a product until it was perfected to her high standards, from ingredients to packaging.
In 1942 she married Prince Michael Evlonoff, only to be divorced in 1944. In 1945 Elizabeth Arden introduced couture clothing to her salon. The first collection was designed by Charles James. To follow were fashion moguls such as Antonio Castillo, Fernando Sarmi and Oscar de la Renta. At the time of Miss Arden's death in October 1966, the Elizabeth Arden Company was grossing an estimated $60 million per year. In her lifetime, she built an empire consisting of 17 different Elizabeth Arden corporations and 40 Salons worldwide. Elizabeth Arden invented the American beauty industry.
Arden, owner of over 100 salons in America and Europe almost always dressed in pink and created and manufactured about 300 cosmetics and fragrance products. She was politically conservative and a hard businesswoman. Above all, she was an
animal lover; so much in fact that one of her contemporaries said of her;
“She treated her women like horses and her horses like women”,
insisting that her own beauty preparations be used instead of horse liniment.