Red Lipstick: An Ode to a Beauty Icon by Rachel Felder
Lipstick is the one makeup item most women can't live without—and the most iconic shade is red. Exuding power, sensuality, allure, and mystery, red lips have been a constant of fashion for more than 5,000 years, beginning with Mesopotamian women around 3500 B.C. Throughout the ages, red lipstick has been a signature look worn by royalty, celebrities, and real women across cultures and geography. In fact, nearly all women own a tube of red lipstick, whether it’s the favorite shade they’ve been wearing devotedly for years, or as beauty boost they use for special occasions.
Filled with a show-stopping selection of images and distinctively packaged—the size of a clutch, with a jacket printed with a matte, velvet, red finish—Red Lipstick is the only cultural history of this makeup essential available. Granted unprecedented access to experts and the archives of revered brands like Chanel and Elizabeth Arden, beauty writer Rachel Felder explores the origins and allure of red lipstick and illuminates its association with aristocracy, sex appeal, illicit sexuality, rebellion, power, glamour, fame, and beauty. She also spotlights the fascinating array of women who have worn it through the ages, including monarchs, suffragettes, flappers, working women in World War II, first ladies, political leaders, geishas, Hollywood sirens, rock and rollers, fashionistas, and more.
- Published by HarperCollins
- 160 pages
- Hardcover
- Measures approx. 6 3/8" x 3/4” x 8 1/2"
Rachel Felder is a journalist who specializes in writing about trends, fashion, and beauty. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, Travel & Leisure, and Departures; she has also contributed to publications such as Women's Wear Daily, and the web sites of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Her writing has also appeared in People, Rolling Stone, Town & Country, New York, Gotham, and many other magazines and newspapers. The author of Insider London (Harper Design, 2017), Insider Brooklyn (Harper Design, 2016), Manic Pop Thrill (Ecco) and co-author (with Reed Krakoff) of Fighter (Viking Studio), she has appeared at conferences like TEDx Oxford and SxSW. She lives in New York City.