A Top Ten Design Legend List

It's no secret that when it comes to the twentieth century, most design schools focus on modernism.  While students learn all about the Bauhaus to Post-Modernism, traditionalism doesn't get a look in.  Elsie de who?

So when I was asked recently to lecture to F.I.T.'s interior design club on the subject of my choosing, I thought why not take to opportunity to fill this gap as best as possible.  I only had 40 minutes, so I set the parameters of:
10 designers
only American
only traditionalists (i.e. reference historical styles)
active in the 20th century.


1.  Elsie de Wolfe - my starting point as arguably the first professional lady decorator

de Wolfe transformed a stuffy formal ballroom into a trellised indoor fantasy for Bess Marbury

2.  Mrs. Eleanor Brown, McMillen, Inc.  

As an early graduate of the new Parsons School of Design, Eleanor Stockstrom McMillen Brown approached her firm with a head for business.  That it is still thriving almost a century later is testament to its excellent foundation.  McMillen, Inc.'s style was heavily influenced by the fine neoclassical furniture sourced by Parsons' Paris Atelier founder William Odom.

 Mrs. Brown's own dining room - timeless elegance.

3.  Dorothy Draper

Draper made her reputation during the Depression as the one to call to give a project an overhaul on time and within budget.  She not only delivered, she delivered BIG - literally blowing up proportion and scale to exuberant effect.

The Greenbrier, Draper's masterpiece, called "Brigadoon" by one guest and that's exactly right.

4.  Billy Baldwin

From here on, men dominate the list.  Baldwin in many ways was the Bonnie Cashin of interiors bringing an American sportswear attitude to high style.  Cotton upholstery, humble materials such as rattan wrapped tables, and the like all brought everything but the chic factor down a notch.

A client's Matisse inspires the custom print of the upholstery.

5.  William Pahlmann

In his day, Pahlmann was considered the most influential decorator of the 20th century along with Elsie de Wolfe.  Eclectic decor?  He invented it.  His contributions to retailing are equally important.  He began his career on Lord & Taylor's fifth floor of home furnishings and was the first to set up themed vignettes.  As Charlotte Moss says, it's all about giving ideas and did he ever.

6.  Tony Duquette

Duquette never forgot the magic of fantasy and bedazzled his rooms with as much whimsy as trompe l'oeil.  "More is more" is definitely more in my book and if life should be a musical, then a Duquette room is the perfect soundstage.

7.   Parish Hadley

The perfect combination of cozy and curatorial, Sister Parish and Albert Hadley complemented each other beautifully like a chocolate covered pretzel.

 

8.  Michael Taylor

Taylor was a complete original and proved it with his California look.  Oh what an eye (and the extravagant ego to match)!

9.  Mario Buatta

The Prince of Chintz brought the English Country House style to Manhattan penthouses and how.  Buatta is also a king of color and comfort.

10.  Michael Smith
What better way to round out the list with the Obama's designer.  Architectural Digest EIC Peggy Russell certainly agrees - Smith graced the cover of her first completely new issue.  While Smith knows his way around Fine French Furniture, he trades in brocades for cool Indian-inspired prints.

What do you think?  Who made or didn't make your list?

The House that Pleasure Built

Mlle Dervieux's boudoir

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by that singularly glamorous creature, the Courtesan.  Living outside of society's constraints and approval, hers was a life dedicated to mastering the art of pleasure in all its forms - intellectual and sensual.  

It was a job requirement to be dressed fashionably and sumptuously and her quarters, as an extension of her person, were just as exquisitely equipped.  The Opera dancer Anne-Victoire Dervieux (1752 - 1826) was one such mistress who was so passionate about her Paris neoclassical hotel particulier that she eventually married her architect François-Joseph Bélanger.* 

The house on the rue Chantereine (now the rue de la Victoire) was fabled for its elegance.  The Baronne d'Oberkirch was one of the many who toured it - while its mistress was out, of course - and described it in her memoirs: "It was a gem.  The furniture alone was worth a king's ransom.  Both court and city had contributed to its decoration."

The two story house was first constructed by Alexandre Brongniart, but was redesigned by Belanger in 1788 in the latest Pompeian taste.

The brothers Goncourt called it the most splendid of the small-scale hotels, "with its bathroom in the Etruscan fashion, the dining room preciously worked with silver arabesques, painted figures, and mahogany and lemon wood married together."  Most petites maisons were sited on the outskirts of Paris where men could engage in all sorts of unsavory pursuits away from society.  If interested, I highly recommend the 18th century novel La Petite Maison which narrates the seduction of a young woman through the architectural delights of a maison de plaisance.

 

Belanger was at the forefront of French neoclassicism which drew upon the arabesque decoration found in the Ancient Roman murals in Pompeii.  (Compare with his British contemporary Robert Adam who was similarly influenced.)

A rare exhibition of 20 watercolor designs was recently on view at Didier Aaron in London.  My dear friend Marc sent me a few images from the show, which I hope some of you had the good fortune to see.  For more, click here.

One of Belanger's most important clients was the Comte d'Artois who, surely no coincidence, was one of Dervieux's supporters.  I couldn't help but include Belanger's charming design for the comte's bedroom at the chateau de Bagatelle in the Bois du Boulogne.

*Dervieux was imprisoned during the French Revolution and her marriage to Belanger afterwards is said to have been more of convenience than of a shared passion enflamed over boiserie and mantelpieces.  Oh well.  The house was later inhabited by another lady of style, Hortense Bonaparte.  Click here to see Dervieux's boudoir in miniature.

For more reading pleasure, curl up with Katie Hickman's Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century and Mistresses: True Stories of Seduction Power and Ambition by Leigh Eduardo.  Of course, I am always looking to expand my library on licentious ladies, if you have any suggestions....

You've got to be kidding.

The Princess Firyal of Jordan's salon by Mongiardino, courtesy of Architectural Digest

Am I the only who is flabbergasted by Architectural Digest's latest list, "The World's 20 Greatest Designers of All Time"? If not, the only reason can be that you haven't seen it yet.

I won't ruin the shock for you, but let me give you a taste of where it went wrong....

Ted Graber? Naomi Leff? John Dickinson? (Amusingly, Valerian Rybar also makes an appearance.) There's no denying the real talent of the aforementioned - but when the pool is supposed to encompass any designer who ever lived anywhere, the selection seems so ridiculous as to be tongue-in-cheek.

Ted Graber's bedroom for the Reagans at the White House

So who would be on my list?

Well, I would probably keep Renzo Mongiardino, Jean-Michel Frank and perhaps Henri Samuel who were the highlights of the AD list. But lets not limit ourselves to Americans with an occasional Euro (or Yugoslavian with a suspicious accent) thrown in...

Jacques Grange, John Fowler, Eero Saarinen,

Josef Hoffman,

Mies van der Rohe, Paul Poiret - who did interiors as well as harem pants...


And surely Eileen Gray was more important than T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings who "borrowed" heavily from the ancients...

But lets go even further back in time than the 1930s....

William Morris,

Robert Adam,

Jean le Pautre,

and how about the sculptor Phidias who was entrusted by Pericles to supervise the building of the Parthenon, which many believe to be the most perfect building in the world, and after whom phi, the symbol for the golden mean, is named....

And who are your nominees?