Obituary: Charla Krupp / Writer provided women tips on appearance
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Charla Krupp, who gained a national following by offering women advice on looking younger and thinner with best-selling books like "How Not to Look Old," died Jan. 23 at her home in New York City. She was 58, but looked a perennial 49. The cause was breast cancer, her husband, Time magazine theater critic Richard Zoglin, said.
In her books and in more than 100 television appearances on the "Today" program on NBC, Ms. Krupp offered down-to-earth style tips intended for real women, not red-carpet icons. Her "five things that will make you thinner by dinner," for example, included a properly fitted brassiere. Women were advised to trade in their "O.L." (Old Lady) granny glasses for sexier frames and to retire their "mommy jeans" in favor of svelte styles.
"How Not to Look Old," published in 2008, spent 15 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, rising to No. 2 in the advice and how-to category. It sold more than 300,000 copies, according to the book's publisher, Grand Central Publishing.
The book provided nonsurgical suggestions on how to avoid the appearance of senescence. The book became a style manual intended for women of all stripes, whether they were sales clerks, homemakers, college professors or venture capitalists. "My book is hitting a nerve because I am giving not looking old a spin as if your life depended on it," Ms. Krupp said in a 2008 interview.
"For our generation, looking younger isn't just about vanity," Ms. Krupp wrote. "Looking good is about our personal and financial survival."
Charla Miriam Krupp was born Jan. 29, 1953, in Chicago, the eldest of three children. She grew up in Wilmette, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Her father, Walter Krupp, worked in the clothing business. Her mother, Esther Krupp, is a real estate broker.
Interested in journalism at an early age, Ms. Krupp was editor in chief of her high school newspaper. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1975. After college, she was a summer editorial intern at Mademoiselle magazine and remained in New York to pursue journalism.
Ms. Krupp began investigating the relationship between a woman's attractiveness and her career trajectory early in her own career. At Glamour magazine, where she was entertainment editor from 1980 to 1995, she wrote articles about ageism and salary disparities in Hollywood. Ms. Krupp went on to work as a senior editor and television commentator for InStyle magazine; as a beauty director at Glamour; a columnist for More magazine; and a contributing editor at People StyleWatch.
First Published February 7, 2012 12:00 am
