Savoir Fact (Or Fiction)

Ah! Madame Rubinstein, how much did we really know about her? Everything we practically knew about her was either invented or embellished by Madame, so that it was hard to know where fact left off and fiction began. Read her autobiography and you would be forgiven for thinking that she was well born, well educated, and a genius where it came to the formulation of new skin care preparations. One thing was certain, however that she gave the illusion of all these things with savoir faire, as seen below in the series of photos of Madame, playing the role of chemist, in her laboratory and factory, or as he called them her ‘kitchens’.

Story goes according to Madame that she was born (we know that much, but when is under debate) in Cracow Poland (Fact) to a wealthy wholesale food broker (Fiction?). Her mother supposedly had a strong interest in feminine beauty and again taught her young daughter the important lessons of looking after one’s skin. Even more critical was the 12 jars of moisturizing cream from a chemist Jacob Lykusky (no records have been found for his existence) that she packed in her luggage when venturing forth to Australia in the later half of the 19th century. Supposedly after making her fortune in Australia she was able to ‘study’ with the best dermatologists and chemists that Europe had to offer. Whether she did or not the photographs below gives one the impression that Madame knew what she was doing and took a hands on approach that gave her company and advertising copy the personal touch. Women were more than happy to buy her products after seeing Madame at work.

Fact of fiction, she knew what she was doing when posing for photographs like these. She was selling an image and sell it she did!

Someone had to do it!

I just can’t get enough of Helena Rubinstein! Here was a woman who was only 4’10 tall so she had to create an impact, and not only through being one of the world’s richest women. Madame’s business was to make women beautiful, despite her own lack of the attribute and make them beautiful she did.

She entertained lavishly whether it be in her penthouse in New York overlooking Central Park or in her apartment in Paris. Even when entertaining or being entertained she became somewhat notorious for apocryphal quips. On one occasion when a rather inebriated French ambassador expressed vitriol towards Edith Sitwell and her brother Sacheverell: “Vos ancêtres ont brûlé Jeanne d’Arc!” “What did he say?," Madame, who knew little French, asked a guest. “He said, ‘Your ancestors burned Joan of Arc” Madame quickly replied, "Well, someone had to do it."

Madame entertaining in her New York apartment with Guy Laroche kissing her hand.


You have to admit, she had savoir faire, even though it might have annoyed some!

Revisited Savoir Faire

An old friend of Savoir Faire is rather upset with me at the moment. A regular feature on Savoir Faire in the early days she feels as if she has been forgotten. I keep reassuring her that that is not the case, and that I do think of her at least once a day. However to please her vanity I am going to write about her again (even if some of it is old material, for some of my newer readers) just to appease her, as believe me I do not want to get onto her bad side, which for me would be social suicide.

To quote “There are no ugly women, only lazy ones” she was an autocrat in her world and had more savoir faire than us mere mortals good ever hope to achieve. For me Helena Rubinstein was the epitome of personal style and savoir faire.

As one of the world’s richest women she used to be seen scurrying down Park Avenue in New York to her office carrying a brown paper bag filled with the remains of the previous night’s chicken for lunch.

She entertained lavishly whether it be in her penthouse in New York overlooking Central Park or in her apartment in Paris. Even when entertaining or being entertained she became somewhat notorious for apocryphal quips. On one occasion when a rather inebriated French ambassador expressed vitriol towards Edith Sitwell and her brother Sacheverell: “Vos ancêtres ont brûlé Jeanne d’Arc!” “What did he say?" Madame, who knew little French, asked a guest. “He said, ‘Your ancestors burned Joan of Arc” Madame quickly replied, "Well, someone had to do it."

Her main rivals including Charles Revson (the founder of Revlon) were not immune either. Revson who built his fortune on nail polish was always referred to as “That Nail Man”.

Elizabeth Arden was a different matter , not only was she a woman, the two never met even though their offices were practically next door to each other. To get back at each other they regularly poached each other’s staff with Madame even hiring Arden’s ex-husband at one stage.

Early one morning 1964, three burglars entered Madame Helena Rubinstein’s Manhattan apartment while she was still in bed and demanded her jewellery collection, which was reputed to be valued at over one million dollars. First of all the intruders would have been amazed at Madame Rubinstein’s lucite furnitured bedroom. Long before Philip Stark made the ghost chair famous, Rubinstein had a whole room of the stuff. This included an illuminated bed specially made that would fit her short frame.

Over ninety years old, Rubinstein refused, saying they could shoot her. Unnerved, the robbers left with only $200 in cash, which one of them had found in her handbag. With her quick wit and just plain courage she told two of the burglars that they had better make sure that they got their share of the $200.

Three hours later Madame, emerged from the building immaculately attired in Balenciaga, a Hermes scarf tied around the handle of her handbag and one of her signature bowler hats on her head and headed off for a day at the office. Mind you this was only after driving around the block in her limousine to compose herself. Still you have to admire her courage and her savoir faire as any other 93 year old would have probably died of fright when confronted with 3 gun wielding intruders or emerged still clad in their housecoat, too upset to do anything let alone spend a day at the office!

So dear Madame, I hope you have forgiven me!

Gem Stone Savoir Faire

Inspired by Jill over at Stella’s Roar and her latest post of the fabulous jewellery by Lanvin, I immediately thought of Helena Rubinstein and her passion for jewellery.

The below photographs say it all for Helena Rubinstein’s obsession for jewellery! She liked it big and a lot of it! Rumoured to have one of the most fabulous collections in the world, hers was not the stock standard diamonds one would find within other collections. Such was the fame of the collection that at one stage there was an attempted heist, with the thieves getting nothing but $200. (see previous post "Savoir faire with Pluck". She always wore masses of jewelry in public—especially rubies with ruby red lipstick and nail polish to match them.

Her collection was an Aladdin’s cave of the unusual, the oversized and valuable. Rubies the size of pigeon eggs vied for attention with cabochon stones of all shapes and sizes. Being so small in statue Madame relied on her jewellery to create an impact. Oversize pieces were the norm with her, which emphasised her presence, and eclipsed all other jewellery present. Combined with the simple suits she wore later in life one could not help but notice the jewellery. Necklace upon necklace was worn around her neck, while her wrists were weighed down with all manner of bracelets.

One can accuse Madame of only collecting for quantity over quality, and this to a certain extent is true. However, she had some important valuable pieces in her collection, such as a set of rubies that were rumoured to have belonged to Catherine the Great of Russia.

A great public relations trick Madame would play when entertaining the press or anybody for that matter would be to wear lots of cheaper items of jewellery. This would create an impact, that when admired by an admirer Madame would whip it off and give to the person in question saying that they must have it and that it was nothing!

At one stage she complained that the storage of the collection was giving her grief, so the story goes that her assistant bought her a filing cabinet (in the photo’s ?) and that diamonds etc were filed under the appropriate letter of the alphabet. She looks like a child sitting on the floor with her favourite toys spread all around her.

Madame definitely knew her style and what suited her. For what she lacked in beauty and stature she adorned herself in such a way that people could not help by notice her.

Helena Rubinstein - The Portraits

Now it has been a while since I have mentioned Helena Rubinstein, as most of you know one of my favourite personalities from the 20th century. Madame had more savoir faire than us mere mortals and if there ever was a goddess of savoir faire, Madame would be it!

Maybe to constantly remind herself and her public of her incredible sense of style, Madame commissioned her portrait to be painted by the most famous artists of the day. In total 27 portraits were commissioned by artists such as Salvador Dali, Raul Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Marcel Vertes and Graham Sutherland. There has been no other woman in the twentieth century (except maybe Luisa Casati or the Queen) who has had their portrait painted by so many different artists.

It is interesting to see these portraits as they not only convey a different conception of the same women over a period of time but how Rubinstein thought of herself. By no means a beauty herself, some of the portraits are beautiful, such as the Laurencin portrait which conveys Madame as an Indian princess, serene and ethereal (one of my favourites).


On the other hand the Dali conveyed her shackled to cliff face via a string of emeralds. "He felt I was bound by my possessions, which is very far from the truth," was Madame’s explanation of the portrait, which seems a bit odd coming from someone who amassed a plethora of possessions.

Towards the later years the portraits convey a matriarch that was casting her eagle eye over all and sundry. Although tiny in stature the portraits by Graham Sutherland and William Dobell portray a larger than life figure that could have been frightening to some. Initially she hated the Sutherland portrait, but grew to like it – maybe it was a little too accurate!

With the Dobell portrait, she thought it "rather too much of a caricature", although that didn't stop her endowing a travelling scholarship for Australian artists.

However one artist did elude her and that was Picasso. She professed that "I would never have asked him for a portrait”. However she hounded him until she had annoyed him so much that finally he gave in and did a whole series of drawings. They made her look so horrible that he never showed them to her. She appears in Picasso's sketches as a cadaverous crone with gnarled, bejewelled knuckles.

The Rene Bouche portrait from 1960 below is probably a far more accurate interpretation of Madame in later life, than previous portraits, with Madame looking small and the old lady she was.

Other favourites of mine are:

Marcel Vertes

Baron Kurt Ferdinand von Pantz 1944

Edward Bernard Lintott 1936

While all the portaraits are in a different style they are umistakingly the ame woman with lots of savoir faire!

Helena Rubinstein & David Hicks, a Match Made in Heaven

What would a blog about savoir faire be without the meeting of two of my most favourite style icons? Helena Rubinstein, one who had enough savoir faire for 10 of us and David Hicks, interior designer extraordinaire who showed us what living with savoir faire was all about. So put these two together and what do you have? A match made in heaven whose offspring showcased how brilliant each was. Both were headstrong and had their own ideas on how things should be accomplished.

David Hicks has been considered to be at the forefront of interior designers in the 20th century. However after his marriage in 1960 to Lord Mountbatten’s daughter his career was on the wane. However fortunes changed with a commission from Madame Rubinstein to decorate her new Knightsbridge apartment in London. The result showed that Hicks was at the top of his game and put him back in the limelight. Most major newspapers and magazines ran features of the result, unleashing on an unsuspecting public a masterpiece of bold colour schemes and savoir faire. Hicks managed to incorporate Madame’s compulsive acquisition of objects and art into an intelligent mix of old and new. Vitrines inset into silk coloured walls held Madame’s collections. Radiators were covered in gold mesh that looked like Faberge. Old Portuguese carved wooden doors were used as bedheads, and Victorian furniture was painted white and recoverd in daring colours.

With true savoir faire when Hicks inquired as to what colour she would like the walls of her new drawing room painted, she called for a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut a swatch of purple silk from the lining of the Balenciaga she was wearing. And like a true gentleman, Mr Hicks carried out her wishes, the result being a pink, scarlet and magenta room that Hicks referred to as “one of the most dramatic, and daring colour schemes I have ever assembled”. I don’t have any photos of the finished result, however below are two examples of what the end product would have been like.

When Two Minds Meet

Mmm, we hear the name Goldfinger and we are inexplicably led to one of 007’s arch enemies, who had a bit of a penchant for gold. However dig a little deeper and we come across another man of the name Goldfinger who had a penchant for architecture. Erno Goldfinger was a Hungarian born architect and furniture designer who worked primarily in England and who was a key member of the Modern Movement.

His style which was very austere and severe and almost brutal at times ended up being an integral part of modernist architecture in England during the 1920’s and 1930’s. His buildings and designs contrasted dramatically with the surroundings in which they were located in. In the setting of old London and other areas his designs stood alone and thus demanded to be looked at and studied for their own merits and then as to how they related to their surroundings. Even right through to the late 1960’s Goldfinger was there, and England is dotted to testaments of his legacy, like the Trellick Tower in London, one of the landmark attempts of high-rise residential living.

The façade of the Georgian mansion he updated for Helena Rubinstein’s new London salon on Grafton Street in 1925. was a triumph of modernist design. The salon was located in chic Mayfair. Goldfinger's original design included Madame’s name illuminated in lights, repeated four times down the side of the building, which Madame vetoed as she thought it bad taste. Goldfinger resented Rubinstein as being overbearing- an adjective often used to describe himself, however in retrospect, he could see how interesting she was. Stubbornly, Goldfinger forced through the starkly modern design which was to the taste of neither Madame or of her customers, nor indeed of the builders who tried to add decorative touches to Goldfinger's drawings in the belief that he must have accidentally forgotten them. Although he struggled even to be paid for the project, Goldfinger succeeded in building 'the first modern shop in London' with a fully glazed façade which is today's standard treatment.

I don’t have a photo of the salon’s exterior however it would have been similar to the below.

The interior of the beauty salon was designed in a minimal way, with chrome and glass fittings faintly reminiscent of hospital interiors.

Sadly destroyed during World War II, Madame’s London Salon was redone in a totally different style. As usual Madame, had a knack for sourcing hitherto unknown talent and paving the way for their success.

Savoir Faire with Pluck

Early one morning 1964, three burglars entered Madame Helena Rubinstein’s Manhattan apartment while she was still in bed and demanded her jewelry collection, which was reputed to be valued at over one million dollars. First of all the intruders would have been amazed at Madame Rubinstein’s lucite furnitured bedroom. Long before Philip Stark made the ghost chair famous, Rubinstein had a whole room of the stuff. This included an illuminated bed specially made that would fit her short frame. Over ninety years old, Rubinstein refused, saying they could shoot her. Unnerved, the robbers left with only $200 in cash, which one of them had found in her handbag. With her quick wit and just plain courage she told two of the burglars that they had better make sure that they got their share of the $200.

Three hours later Madame, emerged from the building immaculately attired in Balenciaga, a Hermes scarf tied around the handle of her handbag and one of her signature bowler hats on her head and headed off for a day at the office. Mind you this was only after driving around the block in her limousine to compose herself. Still you have to admire her courage and her savoir faire as any other 93 year old would have probably died of fright when confronted with 3 gun wielding intruders or emerged still clad in their housecoat, too upset to do anything let alone spend a day at the office! Though I have no photo of this, below is an example of how she would have been dressed