I was rather excited when I spotted this book on NetGalley. I have been planning L.M.Montgomery month for well over half a year, and while every post isn’t directly related, I wanted most to have a connection. Although Elizabeth Arden’s history is obscured behind global branding now, she was a contemporary of Montgomery. Born in 1874 (Montgomery) and 1881 (Arden) in Canada, they would have largely faced the same world. For this Style File Friday, I’m going to be chatting about Elizabeth Arden and a new look at her life, Behind the Red Door! Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Behind the Red Door, Louise Clare Johnson
Nearly a century before #girlboss culture, Glossier ads, and glammed-up influencers were even glimmers on the horizon, there was Elizabeth Arden – the alter ego of Florence Nightingale Graham, a small-town Canadian girl who pioneered the global beauty industry (valued at $532B today!) and became the world’s wealthiest self-made woman.
By the end of the 1930s, it was said “there are only three American names known in every single corner of the globe: Singer Sewing, Coca-Cola, and Elizabeth Arden.” And yet, so few today know her story — which, with the passage of time and the company changing hands in recent years, is under greater threat than ever of being lost to the footnotes of history.
Now, journalist Louise Claire Johnson embarks on a mission to change that with Behind the Red Door: How Elizabeth Arden’s Legacy Inspired My Coming-of-Age Story in the Beauty Industry, set for release in hardcover and ebook with Gatekeeper Press on May 4, 2021.
In just under three-hundred compulsively readable pages, Behind the Red Door takes readers on an exhilarating journey alongside two young women from the Toronto suburbs who arrive in Manhattan with big ambitions and bigger work ethics: Elizabeth (“Liz”) Arden and Louise (“Lou”) Johnson, who began an internship at Arden’s NYC headquarters in 2008 and worked her way up to senior global marketing manager before leaving to pursue a degree at Harvard in 2014.
A unique blend of biography and memoir, Behind the Red Door is structured chronologically in alternating “Liz” and “Lou” vignettes, following both women as they turn themselves into the success stories they once dreamed of becoming… and discover their true joys, hopes, fears, and inner strength along the way.
In Liz’s timeline — peppered with fascinating facts about the cosmetic industry’s history, scenes of New York City at peak old-world glamour, and bold-faced names including Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe (both fans and friends) — the book charts new territory in revealing the extraordinary, stranger-than-fiction story of the first woman to grace the cover of TIME Magazine, reclaiming Elizabeth’s place as a feminist icon who redefined beauty and paved the way for generations of entrepreneurs, activists and independent women to come.
In 2008, exactly one hundred years after “Liz” moved to Manhattan with dreams of becoming a self-made woman, the author makes the very same journey to begin her dream internship at Elizabeth Arden HQ. The age of social media is just beginning to dawn, the hustle-and-grind lifestyle is de rigueur, and at eighteen years old, “Lou” knows next to nothing about the beauty industry, but finds spiritual kinship with the woman who built it. In a few short years, her lifestyle looks a lot like the Millennial dream, with junior executive positions in Manhattan, Geneva, London… but as she ultimately uncovers in her diary entries addressed to Liz, it doesn’t quite feel like her dream after all.
Elizabeth Arden: L.M. Montgomery’s Contemporary
You will get the whole story when you read Behind the Red Door, but Arden was Montgomery’s contemporary. (If you didn’t know, her personal name was Florence Nightingale Graham.) Both broke into worlds largely dominated by men. And I can confidently say, they both left a lasting legacy behind. What strikes me about both women is that they faced countless obstacles but still carried on doing what they loved.
Why You Should Read This…
I will admit, for the first 1/3-1/5 of this book, I found the dual layout of Elizabeth Arden’s life and Louise Johnson’s life a tad gimmicky. We all like to compare ourselves to people in the past, but it almost came across as Johnson directly modelling her life on Arden’s, and it felt awkward at a few points. However, once Johnson’s adult life really starts and she takes her own path, each truly stands on their own.
I am fairly familiar with the development of the cosmetics/beauty industry, so that wasn’t new to me. However, if you aren’t, it is an excellent primer! (Johnson’s sections in particular give you a better idea of the beauty industry in the last 15 years.) I wasn’t particularly familiar with Arden aside from being a Canadian and having a counter at the Bay. She was a fascinating woman, and her life sadly held more tragedy than one might expect. (Much like Montgomery!)
I would recommend Behind the Red Door to anyone interested in the beauty industry at all, or in Elizabeth Arden!
Were you familiar with Elizabeth Arden and Florence Nightingale Graham?
Cheers,
The Historian
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