WHO: Elsie De Wolfe

Elsie De Wolfe’s well-cultivated popularity and outsize persona coincided with a rise in interior design in the early 1900s.  She wrote The House in Good Taste, and The New Yorker credited her with inventing the profession of interior design.

The House in Good Taste is full of timeless advice such as, ”I believe in plenty of optimism and white paint, comfortable chairs with lights beside them, open fires on the hearth and flowers wherever they ‘belong,’ mirrors and sunshine in all rooms.”  The book is a thoughtful gift for anyone who is curious about the history of interior decorating.

To purchase a copy of The House in Good Taste, please visit bn.com.

Image courtesy bn.com.

WHO: Elsie DeWolfe

Elsie De Wolfe’s well-cultivated popularity and outsize persona coincided with a rise in interest in interior design in the early 1900s. She wrote The House in Good Taste, and The New Yorker credited her with inventing the profession of interior design.

De Wolfe transformed the design of wealthy homes from the dark Victorian style into designs featuring light, fresh colors and a reliance on 18th-century French furniture and reproductions. She helped popularize faux finishes and leopard print.

In addition to being one of the pioneers of American interior design, De Wolfe was a true character. She practiced yoga and stood on her head daily at age 70. She married Sir Charles Mendl, a diplomat, but scandalized Paris society when she once turned handsprings as an entrance to a fancy-dress ball. She inspired lyrics by Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.

And on first seeing the Parthenon, De Wolfe exclaimed “It’s beige – my color!”

Image and info courtesy Wikipedia. For more information, please visit this month’s edition of Matchbookmag.com.

WHO: Ruby Ross Wood

Ruby Ross Wood, one of America’s first decorators, started her career writing about design. Her writing appeared regularly in The Delineator, a popular women’s magazine. The columns she wrote under the byline of Elsie de Wolfe formed the basis of de Wolfe’s decorating manual “The House in Good Taste.” Columns she wrote about architecture under her own name became the basis of The Honest House, a popular book in the early-1900s.

Though her first design firm, the Modernist Studios, folded, Ruby Ross Wood went on to run Belmaison at John Wanamaker, and to work with Nancy McClelland at Au Quatrieme. In the 1920s, she opened her own firm. Her most famous employee was Billy Baldwin, who said Wood’s professional credo was “The final judgment in decorating is not the logic of the mind, but the logic of the eye.”

Info courtesy Wikipedia. Image courtesy All The Best. Special thanks to House Beautiful for the inspiration!

WHO: Elsie De Wolfe

Elsie De Wolfe’s well-cultivated popularity and outsize persona coincided with a rise in interest in interior design in the early 1900s. She wrote The House in Good Taste, and The New Yorker credited her with inventing the profession of interior design.

De Wolfe transformed the design of wealthy homes from the dark Victorian style into designs featuring light, fresh colors and a reliance on 18th-century French furniture and reproductions. She helped popularize faux finishes and leopard print.

In 1905, De Wolfe created and executed the project that launched her on a financially successful career. Stanford White, the architect for The Colony Club and a longtime friend, helped de Wolfe secure the commission for its interior design. The building, located at 120 Madison Avenue (near 30th Street), became the premier women's social club. (It is now occupied by The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.) Eventually her client list would include a range of society figures from Vanderbilts to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

In addition to being one of the pioneers of American interior design, De Wolfe was a true character. She practiced yoga and stood on her head daily at age 70. She married Sir Charles Mendl, a diplomat, but scandalized Paris society when she once turned handsprings as an entrance to a fancy-dress ball. She inspired lyrics by Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.

And on first seeing the Parthenon, De Wolfe exclaimed “It’s beige – my color!

Image and info courtesy Wikipedia.