Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein (1870-1965) broke free from the constraints of her 19th-century, small-town Polish Jewish background to become a cosmetics industry giant and household name. She produced and marketed the means for ordinary women to transform themselves and to discover and express their own individuality. Through her conception of the "beauty salon" as a place of modernist display, she empowered the modern woman to define herself through her choices in taste and de'cor. "Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power" concentrates on Rubinstein as an art collector and patron, as well as discussing her little-known role in integrating the notion of style – reflected in her wide-ranging tastes – within the overarching culture and industry of beauty. In tracing how her brand name became associated with the woman herself, the book examines the various ways Rubinstein controlled and defined her remarkable image.