Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendl, occ. Lady Elsie de Wolfe Mendl) (December 20, 1865 – July 12, 1950) was a pioneering professional interior decorator in the United States, author of the 1913 book The House in Good Taste, and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society. Modern biographers refer to her as "Elsie de Wolfe," but contemporary references to her, from her marriage in 1926, until her death at Versailles, France, usually refer to her as "Lady Mendl." December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Versailles, formerly the capital city of the kingdom of France, is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and is still an important administrative and judicial center. ...

Her clients included Anne Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Adelaide and Henry Clay Frick [7] . She transformed the design of wealthy homes from the dark Victorian style into designs featuring light, fresh colors.^[1] Anne Morgan was a philanthropist and the sister of financier J.P. Morgan, Jr. ... The peerage title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for The Prince Edward, formerly King of the United Kingdom. ... The Duke and Duchess of Windsor on their wedding day. ... Henry Clay Frick Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist and art patron. ... Victorian can refer to: people from or attributes of places called Victoria (disambiguation page), including Victoria, Australia, people who lived during the British Victorian era of the 19th century, and aspects of the Victorian era, for example: Victorian architecture Victorian fashion Victorian morality Victorian literature This is a disambiguation page...

Katherine Webster calls her "the first lady of interior decoration" and says she was "without question the first woman to create an occupation as designer where none had existed before." She has been called "the mother of interior decoration." But Mary Cummings says that De Wolfe "was surely stretching things when she boasted of being 'the first interior decorator.'"^[2][3][4][5].

In her autobiography, De Wolfe calls herself a "rebel in an ugly world." Speaking of herself in the third person, she says that her mother said often that she was ugly, but "just what ugly was she did not know... Now she was to know." Arriving home from school, she found that her parents had redecorated the drawing-room:

She ran [in]... and looked at the walls, which had been papered in a [William] Morris design of gray palm-leaves and splotches of bright red and green on a background of dull tan. Something terrible that cut like a knife came up inside her. She threw herself on the floor, kicking with stiffened legs, as she beat her hands on the carpet.... she cried out, over and over: "It's so ugly! It's so ugly."^[6]

Hutton Wilkinson, president of the Elsie De Wolfe Foundation, suggests that De Wolfe “simply didn’t like Victorian... because it was the high style of her sad childhood."^[7] This page is about William Morris, the writer, designer and socialist. ...

De Wolfe began her professional career in theatre, making her debut as an actress in 1890. She was a member of the Empire Stock Company, then formed her own company. On stage, she was neither a total failure nor a great success; one critic called her “the leading exponent of . . . the peculiar art of wearing good clothes well.”^[8] She became interested in interior decorating as a result of staging plays, and in 1903 she left the stage to launch a career as a decorator. ^[9]

In 1905, Stanford White, architect for The Colony Club, 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) ^[10] Stanford White, 1853 - 1906 Stanford White (September 11, 1853 - June 25, 1906) was an American architect and the celebrity partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. ... The American Academy of Dramatic Arts is a fully accredited two-year conservatory with campuses located at 120 Madison Avenue in New York City and 1336 North La Brea Avenue in Hollywood. ...

Her 1926 marriage to diplomat Sir Charles Mendl was page-one news in the New York Times. The Times said that "the intended marriage comes as a great surprise to her friends," perhaps because since 1892 she had been living almost openly in a lesbian relationship; as the Times put it "When in New York she makes her home with Miss Elizabeth[sic] Marbury at 13 Sutton Place." Marbury, like De Wolfe, was also a career pioneer; she was one of the first theatrical agents, and her clients included Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. During their years together, Marbury, a wealthy heiress, was the main support of the couple. Dave Von Drehle speaks of "the willowy De Wolfe and the masculine Marbury... cutting a wide path through Manhattan society. Gossips called them "the Bachelors." ^{[11][12][13][14][15]} The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was an Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer. ... G. Bernard Shaw (he hated the George, which was his fathers first name, and never used it, either personally or professionally) (July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950) was an Irish playwright and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. ...

In 1926 the New York Times described her as "one of the most widely known women in New York social life," and in 1935 as "prominent in Paris society." She was immortalized in popular songs of the day. In Irving Berlin's Harlem On My Mind the singer professes to prefer the "low-down" Harlem ambience to her "high-falutin' flat that Lady Mendl designed;"; a Cole Porter lyric observes that "When you hear that Lady Mendl, standing up/Now turns a handspring landing up-/On her toes/Anything goes!" (De Wolfe's biography, appearing in the same year as Porter's musical, revealed that her daily regimen at age seventy included standing on her head, walking on her hands.)^[16][17][18] Irving Berlin (May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989), born Israel Isidore Baline, in Tyumen, Russia (or possibly Mogilev, Belarus), was an American composer and lyricist, one of the most prodigious and famous American songwriters in history. ...

In 1935, Paris experts named her the best-dressed woman in the world, noting that she wore what suited her best, regardless of fashion.^[19]

On seeing the Parthenon, De Wolfe is supposed to have exclaimed "It's beige—my color!"^[20] The Parthenon seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west The Parthenon (Greek: Παρθενώνας) is the best-known surviving building of Ancient Greece and is regarded as one of the worlds greatest cultural monuments. ...

American Decades opines that "she was probably the first woman to dye her hair blue, to perform handstands to impress her friends, and to cover eighteenth-century footstools in leopard-skin chintzes."^[21]

Books by Elsie De Wolfe

• De Wolfe, Elsie (1913). The House in Good Taste, New York: The Century Company.
• De Wolfe, Elsie [1913] (2004). The House in Good Taste, Rizzoli. ISBN 0847826317. (Reprint)
• De Wolfe, Elsie (1935). After All, New York: Harper and Brothers.

References

1. ↑ "LADY MENDL DIES IN FRANCE AT 84," July 13, 1950, p. 25. (Birth, death dates: with regard to her date of birth, the Times says she "rarely discussed her childhood" and "differences of opinion existed... one source said she was born on Dec. 20, 1865 on West Twenty-Second Street, a daughter of Stephen de Wolfe, a physician of Wolfville, N. S., and Georgiana (Copeland) de Wolfe of Aberdeem, Scotland.")
2. ↑ Webster, Katherine (2001) "A Decorator’s Life: Elsie De Wolfe 1865 - 1950", Canadian Interior Design website [http://www.canadianinteriordesign.com/kwi/Page_2/Elsie_De_Wolfe.htm ]("first lady," "without question the first woman to create an occupation as designer")
3. ↑ Webster, Katherine (2001) "A Decorator’s Life: Elsie De Wolfe 1865 - 1950", Canadian Interior Design website[http://www.canadianinteriordesign.com/kwi/Page_2/Elsie_De_Wolfe.htm ]
4. ↑ Sparke, Penny; Mitchell Owens, Elsie De Wolfe (2005). Elsie De Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration, Acanthus Press. ISBN 0926494279.: "Considered the mother of interior decoration" is from a synopsis of this book, attributed to "Book News, Inc., Portland, OR," at bookseller's website[1].
5. ↑ Cummings, Mary (2004), "The Interior Realm of the Hamptons."[2]("Stretching things...")
6. ↑ De Wolfe, Elsie (1935). After All, New York and London: Harper and Brothers.; (Reaction to Morris wallpaper, p. 2-3)
7. ↑ Wilkinson, Hutton (2004): Introduction to the 2004 Rizzoli edition of The House in Good Taste, as quoted by Castle, Terry (2006) "Home Alone: The Dark Heart of Shelter-lit Addiction;" The Atlantic Monthly, March 2006.)("simply didn't like Victorian...")
8. ↑ Franklin, Ruth (2004) "A Life in Good Taste: The fashions and follies of Elsie de Wolfe." The New Yorker, Sept. 27, 2004.[3]. "the leading exponent of the peculiar art of wearing good clothes well."
9. ↑ "Elsie de Wolfe to Wed Sir Charles Mendl; Their Wedding Set for Tomorrow in Paris," The New York Times, March 9, 1926, p. 1: early career as actress, "most widely known women in New York social life."
10. ↑ Gray, Christopher (2003), "Streetscapes/Former Colony Club at 120 Madison Avenue; Stanford White Design, Elsie de Wolfe Interior," The New York Times, September 28, 2003[4]
11. ↑ "Elsie de Wolfe to Wed Sir Charles Mendl; Their Wedding Set for Tomorrow in Paris," The New York Times, March 9, 1926, p. 1: early career as actress, "most widely known women in New York social life."
12. ↑ Aldrich,, Robert; Garry Wotherspoon (2002). Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415159830. p. 494 ("famous lesbian relationship... openly received...")
13. ↑ Bunyan, Patrick (2002). All Around the Town, Fordham Univ Press. ISBN 0823219410. p. 204 ("Miss Marbury... was the lesbian lover of Elsie De Wolfe...")
14. ↑ Von Drehle, Dave (2003). Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0871138743. "willowy Dewolfe and the masculine Marbury..." p. 72
15. ↑ Curtis, Charlotte (1982), "A Decorative Collaboration." The New York Times[5]. ("Miss Marbury was born to a fortune she herself enhanced. Her attachment to Miss de Wolfe lasted more than 40 years, during which time Miss Marbury paid more than half of their shared household expenses.")
16. ↑ Irving Berlin: A Hundred Years, Columbia CGK 40039, track 8: "Harlem On My Mind," sung by Ethel Waters: 1:44
17. ↑ Musicals! 15 Hit Songs from Classic Musical Shows, Angel CDC 0777 7 54835 2 9, track 8, "Anything Goes," 4:35
18. ↑ "Elsie de Wolfe's Story", The New York Times, May 5, 1935, p. BR22; review of her autobiography, After All (review refers to her "standing on her head, walking on her hands, and tying herself up in double bowknots")
19. ↑ "PARIS EXPERTS PICK 20 'BEST DRESSED'; Ten American Women Among Those Considered Leaders in Smart Attire. Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt One. Ina Claire, Constance Bennett, and Kay Francis Others—Duchess of Kent Among Americans." The New York Times, November 26, 1935, p. 27. Two days later, November 28th, p. 33, the Times reported that Lady Mendl, just arriving in Paris, said she did not agree and that Mrs. Reginald Fellowes of Paris and London was the best-dressed woman anywhere. The Times reported Lady Mendl as "scoffing at the report that she spent $40,000 a year for clothes. She spends around $10,000 annually—certainly no more than $15,000—she declared." $10,000 in 1935 dollars is roughly equivalent to $138,000 in 2005 dollars [6]
20. ↑ Rich, B. Ruby (2001): "Frames of mind: Dykes take on decor heaven." The Advocate. Los Angeles: Aug 14, 2001., Iss. 843/4; p. 64 ("It's beige—my color!")
21. ↑ "Elsie De Wolfe." American Decades. Gale Research, 1998