More Than a Name: The Rebellion and Romance of Lola Montez
When people walked into a Lola Montez boutique or visit our online store, they often ask: Who was she?
The name wasn’t chosen because it sounded “vintage” or “chic.” It was chosen because Lola Montez was a woman who lived without permission. In a world that demanded women be small, quiet, and invisible, Lola was loud, global, and utterly sovereign.
The Original Rebel: The Real Lola Montez
Lola Montez was a 19th-century dancer and courtesan who understood a secret that most of society tried to hide: power and pleasure are inextricably linked.
At a time when women were legally considered the property of their husbands, courtesans like Lola were among the only women allowed to own property. They were the few who could walk into libraries, engage in high-level political lobbying, and hold court with the most powerful men in the world.
Lola lived on four continents, traversing a globe that wasn’t built for a woman traveling alone. She was a woman of “firsts”—notably, she is believed to be the first woman ever photographed with a cigarette in her hand, a shocking act of public defiance at the time.
But her life wasn’t just about scandal; it was about the full spectrum of womanhood. She ended her days running a home for “wayward” women in New York. Lola proved that a woman who knows the depths of pleasure also knows the depths of compassion. She was a woman who took what she wanted from the world and gave back on her own terms.
The Allende Influence: A Life Without Regret
While the name came from history, the spirit of the brand was sparked by literature. Specifically, Isabel Allende’s sensory masterpiece, Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses.
In that book, Allende writes a passage that serves as the unofficial manifesto for everything Sharon Gordon built. Reflecting on a life lived under the gaze of others, Allende writes:
“I regret my diets, the delicious dishes rejected out of vanity, as much as I regret the opportunities of making love that I missed for keeping busy with chores or out of puritanical virtue.”
She concludes with a sentiment that we believe should be every woman’s birthright: “If I had my life to live over again, I would eat more and fuck more.”
Why We Are Here
Lola Montez was founded to ensure that no woman has to reach the end of her life regretting the “delicious dishes” she rejected. Nor the pleasure she denied herself out of a sense of “morality” or “vanity.”
Sharon Gordon started this brand with a pink suitcase and a vision. Create a space where the modern woman could channel her inner Lola. A place where you can be the owner of your own property. The master of your own pleasure, and the lobbyist for your own desires.
We chose the name Lola Montez because we aren’t just selling products. We are honouring a legacy of women who decided to live—fully, loudly, and without regret.
Are you ready to stop rejecting the “delicious dishes” of life? [Explore our Luxury Collection]