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Article: The First Interior Decorator?
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- December 20, 1992
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1992 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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In the centuries from Louis XIV to Robert Adam to the late
Victorian era, there were architects and furniture shops that would
sell you everything from furniture to drapes to watch fobs. That's
where you went if you wanted to do over your home.
Then came Elsie de Wolfe.
De Wolfe was a party-giving New York actress with no dramatic
ability but so great a dress sense that from 1890 people flocked to
her plays to see what she was wearing. In 1904 her poor acting
helped kill off a new Pinero play in one week. After abandoning the
theater, she set herself up as a professional interior decorator - a
neat trick, since the profession did not exist at the time.
De Wolfe's decorating ability ...