Elsie De Wolfe Essay

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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 queen of England, Queen Victoria. Once back in New York, Wolfe began doing …show more content…

After doing that for a while, Wolfe decided in 1905 on becoming a professional decorator (Munhall, 1999). Soon enough Wolfe came in contact with 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. When the Colony opened in 1907, what really got people talking about Wolfe style was the indoor garden pavilion. 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 six years, Wolfe designed interiors for many esteemed private homes, clubs and businesses on the East and West coasts. Wolfe reputation had grown so much that her studio took up an entire floor of offices on 5th Avenue. Her greatest commission was from a man

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