> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Taking the time to play Cinderella - URL: https://www.smdp.com/taking-the-time-to-play-cinderella/ - Published: 2008-08-22T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-25T00:44:50.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import *By Mariel Howsepian West Dressed* EVE MICHAELS CLUCKS HER TONGUE AT me and shakes her head, disapproving of my navy blue polo shirt. “Too masculine.” Even with its little pink insignia? Eve is not an image consultant, not a stylist, not a fashionista. She prefers the title Inspirational Beauty Coach. At the moment, I am “inspired” to confess that I haven’t shaved my legs for the past three days and I only just this morning removed the chipped red polish off my toes from a 6-week-old pedicure. But I don’t. Eve’s long hair is a sassy shade suggestive of red velvet cake, and her mani and pedi (“They always match”) are today a sunny yellow. For our afternoon coffee date, she wears a belted shirtdress over skinny jeans, and bejeweled pumps. The only time Eve wears flat shoes is when she’s going to the gym. “\[When I wear flats\] I don’t feel as sexy. I don’t feel as pretty.” I am, as usual, wearing flip-flops. “We’ve lost something by being casual,” Eve says. But these are my designer flip-flops. I nod my head in agreement. I do agree. If I didn’t, I would be able to resist watching makeover shows on TV. But I can’t. I want to be Cinderella, the After. I just don’t know if I want to be Cinderella badly enough to do the footwork required to slide into a pair of glass slippers. How is it that we can cheer for a makeover recipient, yet use the phrase “high-maintenance” as a pejorative? It’s OK to be Cinderella for a day, just don’t make a habit of it. Eve knows she’s high maintenance. “I like being high maintenance.” She exfoliates daily, gets blow-outs twice a week, works out with a trainer three times a week, gets a weekly manicure, a biweekly pedicure and root touch-up, and a monthly facial. She’s also incredibly nice. The kind of nice that makes me embarrassed to admit every thought I have when I see a woman who obviously spends a lot of time on herself. Why isn’t it OK for a woman who is friendly, smart, and monogamous, to also be high-maintenance? It defies our mythology. In the 1960s, Eve took her first plane ride. She was 10 years old. “My father bought me a beautiful coat for traveling. I wore little gloves. The flight attendants were all beautiful, and the men all wore ties.” The last time I was at LAX, girls wearing pajamas were pulling luggage off the carousel. “I don’t want to join this malaise,” Eve says. “We have it so easy. At any income level. There’s great ready to wear.” She cites Target, H&M, Mervyns, and Marshalls. “There’s great makeup at the drugstore.” When Eve says her goal is “to wake up America one woman at a time,” I imagine her literally waking me up, rousing me from my bed with bright lights and a TV camera. But Eve isn’t into shows in which hosts throw away the contents of people’s closets. “I’m not into tearing women apart. We do that enough to ourselves. We all have mistakes in our closets.” She admits that 5 to 10 percent of her clothes were mistakes. “Emotional purchases. Menopausal moments.” Eve goes into her clients’ closets saying, “We’ll build, and go better.” She starts with lingerie. “How am I supposed to have you trying on clothes when your breasts are drooping in your bra? They have to have the right lingerie, or we don’t shop.” Eve had a plus-sized client who argued against wearing a thong. “She said, ‘How will my husband even be able to find it?’ I looked her dead in the eye and said, ‘Honey, make him hunt.’ If they’re sleeping with you, they like who you are. So package it pretty.” This makes me think of all the times my husband has called me “sexy” and my response has been to roll my eyes. Why is this my reaction? What do I want him to say to me? Later, I treat myself to a mani/pedi. Matching, of course. But first, I shave my legs. MARIEL HOWSEPIAN digs black coffee, fairy tales and a man in coveralls. She lives in Santa Monica and ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/082208-13_01.jpg) (Photo: Photo courtesy Eve Michaels) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 22, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/082208.pdf?ref=smdp.com)