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About Me

For most of my life, my day job was journalism. I was a reporter and editor on daily papers in Virginia and Pennsylvania before moving to Hell’s Kitchen. In New York, I became a two-time columnist for ELLE, a senior editor at Glamour, and a department head at InStyle and Mirabella magazines. Transitioning from lifestyle to business beats, I became an editor and columnist at Fairchild Publications (WWD/DNR/Menswear) covering post-WTO trade, fibers, textiles, trend forecasting, and international luxury retail. Along the way, I freelanced for publications including Fast Company, Salon, Health, The Hollywood Reporter, Travel & Leisure, and The New York Times Magazine. 

Writing history or biography, I use a history-from-the-ground-up approach that has long been out of fashion. My work relies heavily on first-person narratives and techniques borrowed from sociologists and investigative reporters. My role models are Studs Terkel and the late Mike Wallace, who headed the Gotham Center for New York City, where I was a listed “expert resource” from 2003–2015. In contrast to advocacy history, my work fails to provide neat answers.

My new book, which grew out of my year-long fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, was called “one of the most anticipated books of 2026” (Lit Hub). In advance of its publication, Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay received praise from respected historians, blurbs from  award-winning authors, and a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Since its April 28 publication, Selling Opportunity has been named an Editors’ Choice in The New York Times Book Review, and has been reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, Kirkus, Texas Monthly, The Dallas Morning News, Harper’s, People, The New York Post, and Booklist, as well as regional publications ranging from The (Winnipeg) Free Press to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Kirkus put it on the list of “Nonfiction Books That Read Like Novels.” Excerpts have run in Town & Country, Lit Hub, and D Magazine.

I currently live in Boston, where I’ve been consulting for digital media, cooking the occasional meal for my son when he comes home from college, and working on my next book.

Over the course of my career, I have published hundreds of articles in newspapers, websites, consumer magazines, trade magazines, and academic journals—work that has earned over 50 academic citations, including respected scholarly journals and books published by Cambridge Scholars, Taylor & Francis, and Bloomsbury Academic. Here, I list only publications that show my bona fides in cultural history.

Select Honors

2014–2015 Wertheim Study, New York Public Library

2009–2010 Fellowship, Leon Levy Center for Biography, City University of New York Graduate Center

2008 NOW Women of Power and Influence Award (declined)

1989 Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Journalism Institute

Conferences and Panels

2012, Presenter, “Bright Modernity: Color, Commerce, and Consumption in Global Perspective.” German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C.

2010, Presenter, “Fashion in Fiction.” Drexel University, Philadelphia

2009, Presenter, “Who Decides the Color of the Season?” Fashion Studies Group, CUNY Graduate Center, New York

2007, Panelist, “French Design, Luxury Industries and Intellectual Property”; Ministère de l’Economie et des Finances, Paris

2005, Panelist, “Creative Motivation Through Sustainable Resources.” Ingeo Roundtable, New York

Boards

2003–2015, Gotham Center for New York City History, Member of Expert Resource Directory

2003 Dove Advisory Board. Part of the five-woman committee of feminist scholars who brainstormed the “Dove Global Study”

2000, Editorial board, Dress, the journal of the Costume Society of America

1995–1997, Executive Board, Cosmetic Executive Women

Recent Publications

Books

Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay. New York, Viking Penguin, 2026.

The Fairchild Encyclopedia of Menswear. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008.

Color Stories: Behind the Scenes in America’s Billion-Dollar Beauty Industry. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002; trade paperback, 2007; eBook, 2008

Chapters

“Who Decides the Color of the Season?” chapter in Bright Modernity, Regina Blaszczyk and Uwe Spiekermann, eds. Worlds of Consumption series, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

“Dudley Williams.” African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed. Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University  and Oxford University Press, 2013.

Select Articles and Podcasts

“The Woman behind the pink Cadillac — key takeaways from a new book about Mary Kay’s life,” KERA/NPR, 8 July, 2026.

“Mary Lisa Gavenas on Mary Kay Ash, Direct Selling, and Building a $2 Billion Empire,” Elena Meets the Author, 4 June, 2026.

BIO, Podcast #261, Biographers International Organization, 29 May, 2026

“Mary Kay’s Moment,” D Magazine, May 2026.

“The Billion-Dollar Beauty Mogul and Her Famous Pink Cadillacs,” Town & Country, May 2026.

“The Queen of Sales,” Lit Hub, 28 April, 2026

Selling Opportunity, New Books Network, 28 April 2026.

“Fast Talk: Beauty on the Inside,” Fast Company, 2009.

“The man in the red suit: An endearing enigma in a scarlet fur-trimmed jacket, Santa has spent the past 150 years spreading joy—and shilling for Macy’s, Maxwell House and Dewar’s scotch.” 23 December 2006. Salon.com.

“Somethin’ Else: Miles Davis and the Commandments of Cool,” Menswear, Fall 2006.

“Being Frank: Four Ways You Can Sing It Like Sinatra,” Menswear, Fall 2005.

“Be Cool: Five Things You Can Learn from Steve McQueen,” Menswear, Spring 2005.

“New York Style,” Menswear, Spring 2003.

“Full Frontal Attack: The Bust as Political Bellwether,” Elle, January 1991.

“Ivy Covers New Ground,” The New York Times Magazine, 18 March 1990

“Art Directors’ Influence on American Interiors,” The Hollywood Reporter, cover story/special issue, 1989.

Reviews

Review of “Elegance in an Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s” at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Aesthetica. 8 April 2014.

“Dressed to kill,” exhibition review of “The Armored Horse in Europe, 1480–1620” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Chronicle of the Horse. 1 September 2005.

“Man About Town,” book review of Beau Brummell, Women’s Wear Daily/DNR, 2005.

“Works on Canvas: Textiles and the Art of Henri Matisse,” exhibition review of “Matisse: The Fabric of Dreams” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Women’s Wear Daily/DNR, 2005.

“Hawaiian Punch,” exhibition review of “Let’s Go Hawaiian” at the American Textile History Museum, Women’s Wear Daily/DNR, 2004.

“Great Finnish: How Marimekko changed the way the rest of us dress,” exhibition review of “Marimekko: Fashion, Fabrics, Architecture” at the Bard Graduate Center, Women’s Wear Daily/DNR, 2003.

“Going by the Book,” book review of Dressing the Man, Women’s Wear Daily/DNR, 2002.

China Chic, book review, Dress, 1999.

Media Coverage

NPR, Esquire.com, New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, New York Post, CBS "Early Show," CNN, Garden & Gun

Social Media

@selling_opportunity @marylisa_gavenas

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

United States

Expertise by Chronology

Early Modern, Modern, 20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Capitalism, Economic History, Gender, Material Culture, Women