2015.01.11 商业女性Jo Malone

shiyi18

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the business woman, Jo Malone.

If her name automatically conjures the citrusy scents of lime, basil and mandarin or spicy notes of amber and lavender then you're doubtless one of the customers who flock into the eponymous stores to buy the products that have made her a household name.

Aged nine, she would grind sandlewood and strain juniper at the kitchen table. 17 years later fashionable London flocked to her little salon in Chelsea to be massaged with oils and unguents. In the 1990s the brand went international and the fragrance made her fortune when she sold the business.

If this all sounds like a fragrant little fairy tale, crisply wrapped in a signature black grosgrain bow, it isn't. Severely dyslexic she left school at 14. Her dad was a talented painter but a chronic gambler too, and home life was sometimes hand-to-mouth. Later, and at a time in her life when she should have been enjoying her success and her toddler son, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Finally fully recovered she decided to start again from scratch.

She says, 'I love sharing my story, and I'm not frightened of people seeing the cracks as well as the strengths. I think the things that are sad and difficult are just as important.'



Kirsty Young本周的弃儿是商业女性Jo Malone。

如果她的名字会让人自动联想到青柠、罗勒和柑橘的柑橘味，或者琥珀和薰衣草的辛辣味，那么你无疑是那些涌入同名商店购买使她成为家喻户晓的产品的顾客之一。

9岁时，她会在厨房的桌子上研磨檀香木和过滤杜松。17年后，时尚的伦敦人涌入她在切尔西的小沙龙，用精油和护肤品进行按摩。20世纪90年代，该品牌走向国际，当她卖掉生意时，香水使她发了财。

如果这一切听起来像一个芬芳的小童话，用标志性的黑色罗缎蝴蝶结清脆地包裹着，那就不是了。她有严重的阅读障碍，14岁就离开了学校。她的父亲是一个有天赋的画家，但也是一个慢性的赌徒，家庭生活有时是手忙脚乱的。后来，在她的生活中，当她应该享受她的成功和她蹒跚学步的儿子时，她被诊断出患有一种侵略性的乳腺癌。终于完全康复的她决定从头再来。

她说："我喜欢分享我的故事，我并不害怕人们看到裂痕和优点。我认为那些悲伤和困难的事情也同样重要。