Mike Blumenfeld, Builder of Bloomingdale’s Beauty, Dies at 90

Beauty veteran Myron Blumenfeld has died at age 90. Blumenfeld, who went by Mike, is credited with building the beauty department at Bloomingdale’s into a substantial business. He was with the retailer for 36 years, moving up from his first job as an assistant buyer in the home furnishings and bedding department to vice president of cosmetics. Blumenfeld helped establish the beauty and fragrance offerings of brands such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Diane von Furstenberg and Estée Lauder. That work got him plenty of face time with the leading figures in the industry — in one anecdote, his daughter, Riva Blumenfeld, recalled the day that Leonard Lauder (now chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc.) was unhappy with the Lauder brand’s position in the store, and brought his mother, Estée, to have a conversation with Bloomingdale’s then-chief executive officer Marvin Traub. Blumenfeld’s response was, “Next time, I’m going to bring my mother.”  “Mike Blumenfeld was one of the true heroes of the cosmetic renaissance in New York and the USA,” Lauder said. “He was a longtime cosmetic buyer of Bloomingdale’s and opened his arms and brains to anyone who wanted to be part of the Bloomingdale’s revolution he had started a

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