The Business of Beauty Gender and theBody in Modern London : Gender and the Body in Modern London

"The Business of Beauty is a unique exploration of the history of beauty, consumption, and business in Victorian and Edwardian London. Illuminating national and cultural contingencies specific to London as a global metropolis, it makes an important intervention by challenging the view of those who-like their historical contemporaries-perceive the 19th and early 20th centuries as devoid of beauty praxis, let alone a commercial beauty culture. Contrary to this perception, The Business of Beauty reveals that Victorian and Edwardian women and men developed a number of tacit strategies to transform their looks including the purchase of new goods and services from a heterogeneous group of urban entrepreneurs: hairdressers, barbers, perfumers, wigmakers, complexion specialists, hair-restorers, manicurists, and beauty "culturists.' Mining trade journals, census data, periodical print, and advice literature, Jessica P. Clark takes us on a journey through Victorian and Edwardian London's beauty businesses, from the shady back parlors of Sarah "Madame Rachel" Leverson to the elegant showrooms of Eugène Rimmel into the first Mayfair salon of Mrs. Helena Titus, aka Helena Rubinstein. By revealing these stories, Jessica P. Clark revises traditional chronologies of British beauty consumption and provides the historical background to 20th-century developments led by Rubinstein and others. Weaving together histories of gender, fashion, and business to investigate the ways that Victorian critiques of self-fashioning and beautification defined both the buying and selling of beauty goods, this is a revealing resource for scholars, students, fashion followers, and beauty enthusiasts alike."-- Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Plates Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Modern Beauty London Beauty Selling British Beauty Locating Beauty Brokers 1 “Backmewsy” Beauty: Agnes Headman and Aimée Lloyd Building a British Beauty Business “Hangers-On to a Fashionable Situation” Agnes Headman, 24 Savile Row Aimée Lloyd, 3 Spur Street Conclusions 2 Upstarts and Outliers: Sarah “Madame Rachel” Leverson The Trials of Madame Rachel Bond Street Secrets “The Little Back-Parlour” “Arabian Baths” and the Female Body Perfumers versus “Perfumers” Conclusions 3 Mobilizing Men: Robert Douglas and H. P. Truefitt In the Cutting-Rooms “Unscrupulous and Sneakish Means” From East to West “A New Phase in London” Conclusions 4 Professionalizing Perfumery: Eugène Rimmel “La Petite France” National Spectacle and “British” Beauty “Natural” Beauty and Global Exchange Continental Competition Perfuming Empire Conclusions 5 Female Enterprise at the Fin-de-Siècle: Jeannette Pomeroy The Rise of the Beauty Culturist Mrs. Pomeroy’s Debut Jeannette Pomeroy v. Jeannette Scalé Beauty on Trial Conclusions 6 From Beauty Culturists to Beauty Magnates: Helena Rubinstein Melbourne to Mayfair: Helena Titus Rubinstein The London Look: Louise Winterfeldt American Ambitions: Dora Isabel Stock Titus at Trial Conclusions Epilogue Global Beauty British Beauty Enterprise British Beauty Today Appendix.I Appendix.II Notes Introduction 1 “Backmewsy” Beauty: Agnes Headman and Aimée Lloyd 2 Upstarts and Outliers: Sarah “Madame Rachel” Leverson 3 Mobilizing Men: Robert Douglas and H. P. Truefitt 4 Professionalizing Perfumery: Eugène Rimmel 5 Female Enterprise at the Fin-de-Siècle: Jeannette Pomeroy 6 From Beauty Culturists to Beauty Magnates: Helena Rubinstein Epilogue Select Bibliography Index Plates 'The Business of Beauty' is a unique exploration of the history of beauty, consumption, and gender in Victorian and Edwardian London. Illuminating national and cultural contingencies specific to London as a global metropolis, it makes an important intervention by challenging the view of those who - like their historical contemporaries - perceive the 19th and early 20th centuries as devoid of beauty praxis, let alone a commercial beauty culture. Contrary to this perception, 'The Business of Beauty' reveals that Victorian and Edwardian women and men developed a number of tacit strategies to transform their looks including the purchase of new goods and services from a heterogeneous group of urban entrepreneurs : hairdressers, barbers, perfumers, wigmakers, complexion specialists, hair-restorers, manicurists, and beauty "culturists." Mining trade journals, census data, periodical print, and advice literature, Jessica P. Clark takes us on a journey through Victorian and Edwardian London's beauty businesses, from the shady back parlors of Sarah "Madame Rachel" Leverson to the elegant showrooms of Eugène Rimmel into the first Mayfair salon of Mrs. Helena Titus, aka Helena Rubinstein. By revealing these stories, Jessica P. Clark revises traditional chronologies of British beauty consumption and provides the historical background to 20th-century developments led by Rubinstein and others. Weaving together histories of gender, fashion, and business to investigate the ways that Victorian critiques of self-fashioning and beautification defined both the buying and selling of beauty goods, this is a revealing resource for scholars, students, fashion followers, and beauty enthusiasts alike The Business of Beauty is a unique exploration of the history of beauty, consumption, and business in Victorian and Edwardian London. Illuminating national and cultural contingencies specific to London as a global metropolis, it makes an important intervention by challenging the view of those who-like their historical contemporaries-perceive the 19th and early 20th centuries as devoid of beauty praxis, let alone a commercial beauty culture. Contrary to this perception, The Business of Beauty reveals that Victorian and Edwardian women and men developed a number of tacit strategies to transform their looks including the purchase of new goods and services from a heterogeneous group of urban entrepreneurs: hairdressers, barbers, perfumers, wigmakers, complexion specialists, hair-restorers, manicurists, and beauty "culturists." Mining trade journals, census data, periodical print, and advice literature, Jessica P. Clark takes us on a journey through Victorian and Edwardian London's beauty businesses, from the shady back parlors of Sarah "Madame Rachel" Leverson to the elegant showrooms of Eugene Rimmel into the first Mayfair salon of Mrs. Helena Titus, aka Helena Rubinstein. By revealing these stories, Jessica P. Clark revises traditional chronologies of British beauty consumption and provides the historical background to 20th-century developments led by Rubinstein and others. Weaving together histories of gender, fashion, and business to investigate the ways that Victorian critiques of self-fashioning and beautification defined both the buying and selling of beauty goods, this is a revealing resource for scholars, students, fashion followers, and beauty enthusiasts alike