Florence Nightingale Graham (December 31, 1878 â€" October 18, 1966), who went by the business name Elizabeth Arden, was a Canadian-born American businesswoman who founded what is now Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and built a cosmetics empire in the United States. By 1929 she owned 150 upscale salons across the United States and Europe. Her 1000 products were found in the luxury market in 22 countries. She was the sole owner, and at the peak of her career, she was one of the wealthiest women in the world.
Background
Arden was born in 1878 in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada. Her parents had emigrated to Canada from Cornwall, United Kingdom in the 1870s. Her father, William Graham, was Scottish, and her mother, Susan, was Cornish and had arranged for a wealthy aunt in Cornwall to pay for her children's education. Arden dropped out of nursing school in Toronto.
She then joined her elder brother in Manhattan, working briefly as a bookkeeper for the E. R. Squibb Pharmaceuticals Company. While there, Arden spent hours in their lab, learning about skincare. She then workedâ€"again brieflyâ€"for Eleanor Adair, an early beauty culturist, as a "treatment girl".
In her salons and through her marketing campaigns, Elizabeth Arden stressed teaching women how to apply makeup, and pioneered such concepts as scientific formulation of cosmetics, beauty makeovers, and coordinating colors of eye, lip, and facial makeup.
Elizabeth Arden was largely responsible for establishing makeup as proper and appropriateâ€"even necessaryâ€"for a ladylike image, when before makeup had often been associated with lower classes and prostitutes. She targeted middle age and plain women for whom beauty products promised a youthful, beautiful image.
In politics, Elizabeth Arden was a strong conservative who supported Republicans.
Career
In 1909, Arden formed a partnership with Elizabeth Hubbard, another culturist. The business relationship dissolved after six months. Graham, who desired a trade name, used "Elizabeth" to save money on her salon signage. She chose the last name, "Arden", from a nearby farm. So the trade name "Elizabeth Arden" was formed. From there, Arden founded, in 1910, the Red Door salon in New York, which has remained synonymous with her name ever since (see under Elizabeth Arden, Inc.)
In 1912, Arden traveled to France to learn beauty and facial massage techniques used in the Paris beauty salons. She returned with a collection of rouges and tinted powders she had created. She began expanding her international operations in 1915, and started opening salons across the world. In 1934, she opened the Maine Chance residential spa in Rome, Maine, the first destination beauty spa in the United States. It operated until 1970.
In 1962, the French government awarded Arden the Légion d'Honneur, in recognition of her contribution to the cosmetics industry.
In 1966, Arden died at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. She was interred in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, under the name Elizabeth N. Graham.
In popular culture
The musical War Paint dramatizes her rivalry with competitor Helena Rubinstein. After a wildly successful out of town tryout at Chicago's Goodman Theater, the show opened on Broadway at the Nederlander Theatre on April 6, 2017, earning four Tony Award nominations, including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Christine Ebersole's portrayal of Arden.
The comedy Lip Service by the Australian dramatist John Misto chronicles the life and career of Helena Rubenstein and her rivalry with Arden and Revlon. Lip Service premiered on 26 April 2017 at the Park Theatre, London, under the title Madame Rubenstein, before opening at Sydney's Ensemble Theatre in August of the same year.
References
War Paint by Lindy Woodhead page 94
Further reading
- Haag, Karin Loewen (1999). "Arden, Elizabeth". In Commire, Anne. Women in World History: A biographical encyclopedia. 1. Waterford, CT: Yorkin Publications, Gale Group. pp. 442â€"446. ISBN 0787640808.Â
- Marshall, Mary. Great Breeders and Their Methods (2008) Russell Meerdink Co. Ltd. ISBN 978-0-929346-82-3
- Peiss, Kathy. Hope in a jar: The making of America's beauty culture (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011).
- Willett, Julie A. (2010). The American Beauty Industry Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 22â€"25.Â
- Woodhead, Lindy. War Paint (2004) Virago ISBN 1-84408-049-8
External links
- Elizabeth Arden at Elizabeth Arden, Inc.
- Elizabeth Arden at Elizabeth Arden, Inc. corporate
- Florence Nightingale Graham at the Fashion Model Directory
- FBI dossier on Elizabeth Arden
