Jezebel
If there is anyone I can't stand reading about it would have to be Aerin Lauder. She is Estee Lauder's granddaughter, and apparently some important high-powered executive at the makeup company, but she spends most of her time hosting parties and giving interviews to magazines so the world can read sentences like "She is every inch the star, with her swan-like neck, her graceful composure and her gorgeous designer dress" or "Perfect is the only way to describe Aerin Lauder" or "Aerin continues the legacy of stylish American women like C.Z. Guest and Jackie O., who combine the idea of simplicity and luxury with an eye toward quality and timelessness," on a steady basis. (Oh yeah, and isn't it absolutely AMAZING that she doesn't hire a stylist? Her style is all her own.) So I was kind of keen to see a story in today's Wall Street Journal promising to roll back the glossy swan-necked exterior on the Lauder family and show what life is really like for the dysfunctional family behind all the department store cosmetic brands you used to buy when you still went to department stores.
Um, so yeah, basically Aerin's dad managed to accumulate $200 million worth of personal debts in the eighties and nineties, but he took the company public and just kept selling shares in it to finance his basic needs to the point that, two years ago, he paid $135 million for a single Klimt painting. He tells the paper he doesn't lead a lavish lifestyle. (Though in her autobiography, Estee wrote that his "taste" was "magnificent.")
Meanwhile, Aerin's cousin William stepped down from his CEO post after Page Six reported he had a love child with another woman even though he is married, so now some person from Procter & Gamble is leading the company, because even though a thoroughly entrenched business selling small non-perishable creams and chemicals at a 1000% markup is not a very difficult business to keep afloat, it is too much for vapid people born into unspeakable wealth and privilege to handle anymore. But that Aerin: Sure is pretty!
Tensions Roil Estee Lauder Dynasty [WSJ]
Photo courtesy Go Fug Yourself
Comments
Her neck resembles that of a turtle more than a swan in this photo. In other news, the Genie called. She wants her dress back.
Yeah, rich people are just like the rest of us.
Swan-like? Seems a little haggy to me...and vapid on top of it.
Man, Moe, you sure do hate rich people! and the beauty industry! and the fashion industry!
yeah i get it.
egads, what a terrible dress. can't she afford more fabric?
I know more about the Lauders than anyone ought to - I keep running in to these people, and TRUST, I am not of their social circles - and the thing is, they are just deeply uninteresting. There is so little lasciviousness or glamour, it's a snoozefest and that's enough for me.
That dress may make her rethink the whole "no stylist" thing. She's no Michelle Obama, is what I'm saying.
Wow, is that dress considered timeless? Look, I don't know enough about the girl to hate her, but there are some adjectives in the English language that describe that dress ("heinous") and "timeless" ain't one of them.
Okay. While she does have a very nice figure, that dress looks like it was doing fine before she grabbed either side of the neckline, ripped it down to her belly and tucked it behind her bra.
Swan-like neck? That old cliche? Per-lease. They should have let that description die with Audrey Hepburn.
Does Aerin know she has her dress on backwards?
Elizabeth Shue will play her in the Lifetime movie.
yeah, i don't see her famous style in this photo. and not that i'm hating on her, but if i had access to that kind of cash money, you sure as hell bet i'd be a style icon.
@Pinkosaurus: What about her hair? Does she not have a stylist for that, either?
@AnnieGetYourFun: That dress is indeed ugly. But most of the photos I have seen show her dressed much more appropriately.
@CrankyOldBroad: Oh man! I was just getting ready to snark that.
@Archetype: yeah, they went with the worst dress she ever wore for this.
Oh Moe. I love it when we agree. I hate rich hateful cunts with no talent that get everything handed to them. Yes, I do. Also, boys that are like that. Equal hate.
Oh yeah her dad started the Neue Galerie. So basically "personal debts" = art collection. I do love the Neue Galerie though.
Hmmmm... whatever came of this item:
[gawker.com]
I had figured it was Aerin. I mean, just how many Park Avenue cosmetics heiresses ARE there anyway? Harrumph.
I'm sure that homeboy doesn't consider spending $135 million on a painting to be lavish, seeing as how these rich chumps see buying art as an "investment." An investment in their own pretentiousness, maybe.
Thank You Moe! Every article I have read about Aerin Lauder over the years has left me wanting to rip my hair out.
i'm sorry, but that dress is really doing nothing flattering for her...
@OwenJKatz: Who can resist a French architect?
I wonder how many of you will stop being Clinique now.
You know how sometimes you irrationally dislike a celeb because they remind you of someone you hate? For example, I can't stand to watch anything with Rachel Weisz (sp?) in it, because she looks like this bitch who stole a role from me in a college play.
Well this Lauder girl looks like this chick I went to high school with, a completely annoying dip named Lisa.And these days, I feel sorry for Lisa because she didn't go to college, had a baby with a loser, and is in a dead-end job. So I can't help but to project my feelings regarding Lisa onto this Lauder girl. Stay strong, Aerin!
She now thinks she's a model and she shouldn't.
And why is India Hicks in Vogue every other month?
That's nice. I work for and Estee Lauder company that just slashed my hours after a year of loyal work because "I must understand, although we are a caring company, we have to make money".
@type_slowly: Me too! I do admire the guys taste in and passion for art. Aerin has no effect on me whatsoever.
really? b/c everytime i've see pics of her she looks bedraggled with unruly eyebrows. "perfect", pah.
@Archetype: buying...not being!
I am hungover.
@jenndavo: I can totally see that. It's the thin upper lip I think.
@Archetype: lauder also own prescriptives, bobbi brown, etc.
@Archetype: not me. it's the only non rite-aid brand i'll buy.
Bad dress.
That cutout detail didn't look good on fuschia or teal prom dresses in 1996 (seriously, I saw some girls rockin' those at a Sizzler once), and it doesn't look good now.
And, her poor "swan neck" is being swallowed by a bunch of hair in need of a trip to the Hair Cuttery.
I don't want to be that "who is that" person, but C.Z. Guest? I thought our yardsticks were Grace Kelly, and Jackie O.? And all Jackie really had were pearls and big ass sunglasses.
I see her all the time in my neighborhood (her kids go to school close to where I live) - she's actually quite pretty in real life when she's dressed in normal clothes.
@charlotte corday: Don't they own Stila as well?
I officially use no EL product now that I've switched from Clinque powder to Laura Mercier.
@OwenJKatz: Ooooh that Blind Item is so VERY Gossip Girl! Art imitating life and vice versa. Me likey!
@charlotte corday: Also Jane. As much as the Lauder family annoys me, I won't give up getting my drugstore beauty fix from the Jane section.
This is the reason I stopped getting Vogue, just article after article on these dull people. Just because you are the grandchild, niece, son, cousin, sister's-roommate's-nephew's-dog-walker, of someone successful of famous does not make you interesting!!!!
I'm a direct descendant of Oliver Cromwell. Please, stop with all the pictures!
@Archetype: They do.
I adore the phrase "love child". As I am one, I like to say, "Love children are the loveliest!" It's far better than bastard, and up there with the French phrase, which means "green child." All natural, baby!
@marin79: I actually think she's really attractive. Naturally pretty. Don't know much about her personality, aside from gossip and fluff pieces.
Every time I check in over here, I am reminded that y'all are some harsh mother-f-ers. Sheesh.
And for pete's sake Moe, she's a fellow Quaker!
@mercymercyme: Now I have that Supremes song in my head.
Whenever I read about this family, I imagine it's just like the Newmans or the Abbotts from "The Young & The Restless." I love how soap opera families always have cosmetic and fashion empires.
So why are we hating on Aerin? Because Vogue deciedes to write about her? Because she leads a very successful company that her grandmother started? Some people in her family are shady? She wore an awkward dress once?
Klimt is not taste. Klimt is a college dorm room poster.
@AndSheWas: Ha! I totally do that too. My ex boyfriend started dating this girl who looked just like Eliza Dushku so I have an irrational hatred of her.
Call it my poor, plebian roots sticking out, but I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate being in a culture where people are revered simply for being rich.
It makes me feel rather torch and pitchforky.
@mercymercyme: Bastard from a basket! Bastard from a basket!
@sumac: I love you for saying that.
Did anyone else have a douchey college boyfriend give them a Valentine's Day Card with a picture of Klimt's "The Kiss"? Or was it just me who was so lucky?