Individual Scholar Page

Personal Info

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About Me

For most of my life, my day job was journalism. I started on daily papers in Virginia and Pennsylvania before moving to Manhattan, where I worked as a columnist for Elle, a senior editor for Glamour and Fairchild’s WWD/DNR/Menswear, a department head at InStyle and Mirabella, and a freelancer for publications including Fast Company, Health, People, The Hollywood Reporter, and The New York Times Magazine. 

In April of 2026, Penguin Random House will publish Selling Opportunity, which grew out of my year-long fellowship at the Leon Levy Center for Biography.

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. Here, I list only publications that show my bona fides in social 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”

1995–1997, Executive Board, Cosmetic Executive Women

Recent Publications

Books

Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay. New York, Viking Penguin, slated for April 2026 publication.

“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.

The Fairchild Encyclopedia of Menswear. New York: Bloomsbury, 2008. Sole author of illustrated, 2,200-entry reference encompassing biographies, textile and tailoring terminology, and social history.

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

Encyclopedia Entries

“Dudley Williams.” African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates Jr., ed. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013

Articles

“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.

Exhibition 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.” The Chronicle of the Horse. 1 September 2005.

Media Coverage

Quotes/interviews: Esquire.com, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, New York Post, CBS "Early Show," CNN, NPR, et al.

Social Media

@colorstoriesbymarylisagavenas @selling_opportunity

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

United States

Expertise by Chronology

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

Expertise by Topic

Capitalism, Gender, Material Culture, Women