Episode 27 ft. Shirley Lord

Sighs and Whispers

Shirley Lord is a journalist, beauty editor and expert, and novelist, who rose from working-class Cockney lass to one of the most influential people in the beauty industry through grit, good humor, and a passion for journalism. A features editor for a British women’s magazine by age 24, three years later she married the carpet tycoon Cyril Lord. Weaving easily between high-class entertaining and a high-powered career, Shirley worked for British Harper’s Bazaar and the Evening Standard in London before leaving her marriage in the early 1970s to move to New York. After a stint as beauty director of Harper’s Bazaar, she became beauty editor of Vogue—a job that she would have in some capacity for most of the next 40 years, only leaving briefly to be vice president of Helena Rubinstein. In the 1980s she married Abe Rosenthal, the legendary editor of the New York Times—they were together until his death in 2011. Shirley Lord has written two beauty books as well as several novels drawing on her deep knowledge of the glamorous fashion and beauty industries. Truly a woman who self-created her life, she joins host Laura McLaws Helms to discuss her journalism career, her five marriages, and all things beauty. For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-26-shirley-lord Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Shirley Lord