Though many of the Interior Decorators I will be talking about in this paper are dead now, many of them remain big icons in the architecture and interior design field to this day. Elsie de Wolfe, whom is still revered as America’s first decorator to this day. Eleanor McMillen Brown, a pioneer in the interior design field and founder of McMillen Inc.. Dorothy Draper, the first to “professionalize” the interior design industry by establishing the first interior design company in the United States. Elsie de Wolfe was an American decorator born in New York City. Besides being an interior decorator she was also a professional actress that performed various light comic and historical roles throughout the 1890s. Wolfe also spent some of her earlier years abroad in Europe and was presented in court to to the …show more content…
Comparing Wolfe style to the Victorian styles of the time, hers was fresh and new because she would eliminate the Victorian clutter, opened up spaces and introduced soft, warm colors (Munhall, 1999). She started the movement of de-cluttering homes and the movement of straying away from the Victorian style. After doing that for some time, Wolfe decided on becoming a professional decorator (Munhall, 1999). Soon enough Wolfe came in to contact with important people who helped promote her and her work like architect Stanford White who got Wolfe the commission to do the decoration in the city’s first only women’s club called “The Colony Club” located on Madison and 31st Street New York. When The Colony club opened in 1907, what people could not stop talking about Wolfe’s style. Wolfe introduced a casual, feminine style with an abundance of glazed chintz, tiled floors, light draperies, pale walls, wicker chairs, clever vanity tables, and the first of her many trellised rooms (Munhall, 1999). Over the next years, Wolfe designed interiors for many private homes, clubs and