A new study by researchers at Texas Christian University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Arizona State University has found that women buy more cosmetics and beauty products during economic recessions — and that they do it because they're trying to attract men with money.
The Hemline Index — the notion that hemlines rise during economic upswings, and head towards the floor in downturns — is still kicking around. And for no good reason, frankly, because it's an unreliable indicator of anything beyond fickle fashion trends. And yet it persists, year after year, season after season. What…
When I first heard of the lipstick index—a term coined by Estee Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder to illustrate how purchases of small luxuries (lipstick) rise in recessions, serving as compensation for consumers suddenly unable to buy larger luxuries (mink?)—I was all giddy that women's purchasing power had earned its…
Hemlines are so over. The latest way to chart economic trends via women's fashion is farther south: heel height.
In 2001, Leonard Lauder, chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder, coined the term "lipstick index" to explain why lipstick sales rose even as the economy took a nose dive. Lauder declared that during times of recession, people spend more on affordable luxuries. However, according to shocking new data, the contents of your…
Cleveland women are investing in weapons disguised as lipstick and combs after a local man "was indicted for luring 14 homeless, drug-addled women into his house of horrors and then allegedly sexually attacking them and strangling 11 of them." [ABC]
Shane Watson of the London Times uses Sarah Palin's makeup as a jumping-off point to claim that "you either are or you aren't a make-up girl," a bit of armchair sociology that may hold a grain of truth.
Forget the Lipstick Index. And the Foundation Index. The Index of Today is the False Eyelash Index. [Time]
"The "Foundation index" appears ready to overtake the "Lipstick index" as barometer of economic activity... women plump for a layer of foundation as a pick-me-up in gloomy times, rather than a dash of lipstick." [FT]
