Laura did not do many location shootings in those days – just the one in Australia and two on the French Riviera – because unlike many of her colleagues, she did not leave school. It was no simple task but she managed to finish high school and graduate from Tufts University four years later. Once Laura received her degree, she was ready to take on the fashion and cosmetics industries. The industries, however, were ill prepared for her onslaught. June 1983 marked her last cover appearance on a women’s magazine as Laura retired from modeling at the ripe old age of twenty-three. She invested her substantial earnings to develop her own concept, Svengali, a company for the woman-on-the-move, blending practical, intelligent and sophisticated looks with the feminine and sensual.

The slogan: Be your own Svengali.

To say the concept caught on would be the fashion understatement of the eighties. At first, critics scoffed at the model-playing-business-tycoon’s success, claiming it was just another in a series of fads that would disappear in a matter of months. Two years after promoting women’s clothes and cosmetics, Laura expanded into casual shoes and fragrances. By the time she was twenty-six, Svengali had gone public with Laura the majority stockholder and Chief Executive Officer of a multi-million-dollar conglomerate.

The taxi made a sharp right turn. ‘Peterson’s office on the Esplanade, right, missy?’

Laura chuckled. ‘Missy?’

‘It’s just an expression,’ the cabbie explained. ‘No offense meant.’

‘None taken. Yes, they’re on the Esplanade.’

Copycat corporations began to crop up like so many weeds beside her thriving flower.