Elsie de Wolfe

Famed interior decorator Lady Mendl (L), wife of Sir Charles Mendl, press attache to the British Embassy, clad in organza gown designed by Mainbocher as she chats with movie star Mary Pickford during dinner/dance party she hosted at the British Embassy. Paris, France, 1939

Elsie de Wolfe was born plain and as a result hated everything that was ugly and mediocre. She flew into a tantrum as a child when her mother painted their family home sitting room a hideous colour redolent of William Morris (whom Elsie loathed). She made her career creating interiors that were the direct opposite of his “dingy style” using Chinoiserie, Palladian touches and with lots of white and light colours.

JULIAN LA TROBE, CIRCA 1990

By opening the windows and stripping the patterns and dark moods of decor Elsie De Wolfe opened the eyes of America to a whole new perspective in design during the Victorian Era.

Wikioo.org - The Encyclopedia of Fine Arts - Painting, Artwork by Walter Gay - Le Salon Carr De La Villa Trianon

Rare photos from Elsie de Wolfe's dazzling Circus Balls.

An inside look into the rarefied world of Old Hollywood’s most famous interiors maven

A new book on decorator and hostess Elsie de Wolfe celebrates her elaborate fêtes before the start of World War II

Decorator Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl by Cecil Beaton. She was a successful actress, influential decorator and international hostess.

Elsie de Wolfe, American interior decorator, hostess, and actress, best known for her innovative and anti-Victorian interiors. Her first commission, the interior of the Colony Club in New York, demonstrated her signature principles of design: simplicity, airiness, and visual unity.

Lady Mendl

Should Elise de Wolfe (also known as Lady Mendl) lived today she would surely be a fixture in weekly celebrity periodicals more often than not for her eccentric habits, open relationship with a woman and, if for nothing else, showing up to a black tie function in Paris dressed as a Moulin Rouge dancer… doing handstands. Perhaps to be such a creative talent and female pioneer of the design world she needed to be so outlandish; de Wolfe started her career in design after leaving the stage…

It was not just the parties Elise de Wolfe, then known as Lady Mendl, threw which were extravagant - the woman herself was quite remarkable.

Lady Mendl wearing a black cire evening gown by Mainbocher, and a spiral aquamarine-and-diamond headdress by Cartier, with her dog.

Elsie de Wolfe

One of America’s first female decorators, Elsie de Wolfe was also prewar Europe’s great party animal. A new book details the life of the famous hostess.