Elsie de wolfe biography examples

1865 - 1950

“I’m going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life”

Notable clients: The Colony Club, Hope Hampton, Anne Vanderbilt, the Duchess of Windsor, Condé Nast

Elsie de Wolfe, also known as Lady Mendl, was born in 1865 in New York, lived a glamorous life as a well-known member of the European cafe society and earned the title of “grand dame of modern decorating”.

She is believed to be the creator of the interior design profession and called the ‘first modern professional decorator’ by many.

She didn’t have a particularly happy childhood; she believed she was “an ugly child”, and strongly disliked the Victorian surroundings she grew up in.

She is known for especially hating William Morris furniture and wallpaper - there’s a famous account by de Wolfe that after her parents redid their drawing room with William Morris’s wallpaper, she threw herself on the floor and cried, screaming “It’s so ugly!” Maybe that was the mome