100 New Yorkers of the 1970s — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
100 New Yorkers of the 1970s
John Stuart Mill · en
She enjoys all of New York, though at one time "the East Side gave me
the ooga boogas. Then I found a couple of places there that were nice."
On the West Side, she likes to dine at La Cantina, Victor's Cafe, and
Ying, all on Columbus Avenue near 71st and 72nd Streets.
When the five-minute warning sounded in her dressing room, Lucie had
to turn me out, but not before she divulged her philosophy about show
business. "Am I ambitious?" she echoed. "I don't know. There are people
who are willing to really knock the doors down and do just about anything
to get there. I'm not like that. Even now, when I go to the market, people
come up to me and say, 'Aren't you. ... ?' So I can imagine what it
would be like to be a superstar. No, I'm not really looking forward to
that."
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EASTSIDER ADRIEN ARPEL
America's best-selling beauty author
3-29-80
As a young girl in Englewood, New Jersey, Adrien Arpel was determined
that one day she would transform herself into a beautiful woman. After
having her nose bobbed, she began to pester the ladies behind every
cosmetic counter she could reach, and by the time she graduated from
high school at 17, she knew more than they did. That same year she
opened a small cosmetics shop in her hometown with $400 earned from
baby-sitting. Today, at 38, she is the president of a $12 million-a-year
company selling more than 100 beauty products throughout the U.S. and
Europe.
Not content with mere business success, she recently turned her talent to
writing her first book, Adrien Arpel's Three-Week Crash
Makeover/Shapeover Beauty Program (1977). It was on the _New York
Times'_ best-seller list for six months, and is still selling briskly in
paperback. Miss Arpel received $275,000 from Pocket Books for the
reprint rights -- the most ever for a beauty book.
"I have always been a rebel," she proclaims regally, dressed in a stylish
Edwardian outfit with padded shoulders at her midtown office. Quite
heavily made up, with hot pink lipstick and a Cleopatra hairdo, she looks
considerably younger than her age. The strident quality of her voice is
reminiscent of a Broadway chorus girl's, yet is delivered in a crisp,
businesslike manner. During the interview she rarely smiles or strays from
the question being asked. For some reason, she declines to say much
about her new book, _How to Look 10 Years Younger_, which is
scheduled for publication in April. Instead, she stresses the simple,
common-sense rules about beauty that have guided her career from the
beginning.
Probably her two most important innovations are her exclusive use of
nature-based, chemical-free products (chosen from leading European
health spas) and her policy of try-before-you-buy makeup. Complimentary
makeup is offered every time a customer gets a facial at one of the
hundreds of Adrien Arpel salons, such as those on the first floor of
Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue.