A weird coincidence this Christmas. As I waited for the goose to cook, I opened my Christmas presents. The first one de-papered was from my eldest son and it was a boxed collection of hand cream, body lotion, perfume and cologne. The Fifth Avenue brand. I said “Thanks” as I reached for the next gift and remember thinking, at least with one part of my brain. “Hmm. That’s a blast from the past.”
Most of my gifts were bath oils and soaps, but trendy brands in bright boxes. The fruity, ecological style stuff so popular with the young. Lush has taken over from the Body Shop. My husband got me a selection of Clarins spa products, which made me feel guilty, as they are so expensive.
This Fifth Avenue gift made me feel a tad middle-aged (sic). Or it seemed more like something I might have given my mother – were she not into Chanel No. 5 right up until her death.
And then I opened another non-cosmetic gift, a large book about Women in History, that I mentioned in my last blog. My other son and his girlfriend gave me that gift along with some Fruits and Passion creams and bath products. And then I went back into the kitchen to get the feast on the table, hoping not to forget any dish. (As it was, I left the prune apple stuffing in the microwave.)
The next day I started reading the book, in my living room surrounded by unclaimed gifts, and read that part from the 1900-1910 era and read that passage about Elizabeth Arden, and how she opened her first salon in 1909 and how she soon after visited France and brought make-up techniques back to the US and how she was a pioneer in the industry, making make-up a good thing for good working girls, so to speak.
I tracked down a little more about her. She was born in a Toronto suburb and she didn’t go to high school (as it cost money, as my story Flo in the City reveals). She worked as a shop girl, cashier and a stenographer (good money in that) before going to New York and eventually becoming the richest woman in the world.
I’ve written a lot about Coco Chanel, on my http://www.tighsolas.ca/ website. She opened a hat shop in Paris at the same time.
Coco was an example of the right woman in the right place in the right time. But so was Elizabeth Arden, who was A CANADIAN. And she was born in 1884, the same year as Edith Nicholson!! And her Dad was a Scotchman.
How amazing! And what a coincidence, because now I feel I really have to get going, writing Flo in the City, my novel about a girl coming of age in the 1910 era. I have everything, with this bit about Elizabeth Arden the cherry on top of the cake.
As I write this, her scent Fifth Avenue, is wafting around the living room. Vaguely familiar fruity smell. A genuine blast from the past. But, wait, I do some research on Google and see that Fifth Avenue is a newish perfume, released in 1996. (So it’s all in my mind, this idea that Fifth Avenue is a ‘classic’ perfume. But then that’s the true essence of the cosmetics industry: illusion, all-in-the-mindness. I imagine the EA people were trying to evoke a bit of Chanel’s aura or at least, staying power, with this effort. The EA Brand, according to Wikipedia, was the most sophisticated brand in the 30′s to 60′s used by movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and Royalty, like Queen E and her Mom..so I was half-right, anyway. I guess the Chanel No.5 brand was resurrected with those wildly popular and widely-mocked (SNL) Catherine Deneuve ads in the (?) early 70′s.)
As it is, my chapter where Flo and Mae visit Sutherland’s drug store and discuss “rouge de theatre’ is the most popular page on this website.. I have Mae say that in Boston, the big stores sell rouge de theatre, right out in the open. (I made this up.) Yesterday, I learned that Selfridges in London opened in 1909 and sold make-up right out in the open!! (fashionera.com)
