Elsie de Wolfe
Elsie de Wolfe ( born December 20, 1865 in New York as Ella Anderson de Wolfe, † July 12, 1950 in Versailles, Ile -de -France ), better known as Lady Mendl, was America's first professional interior designer.
Life
Ella Anderson de Wolfe was the daughter of a wealthy New York family. She attended a girls college in Edinburgh and was regarded as extremely intelligent - she spoke several languages and was interested in literature and painting. After her graduation, she debuted at the court of Queen Victoria and traveled a lot. In 1890 her father died, a prominent physician, and left his family a considerable debt. Instead of marrying rich, the young woman decided to lead an independent life.
In the summer of 1891 - she called herself now Elsie de Wolfe - she made her debut in the title role of Fabienne, besides her colleague, Sir Johnston Forbes - Robertson, in Thermidor by Victorien Sardou. At the same time she learned the theatrical and literary agent Elisabeth Marbury (1856-1933) know and love. Over the next twenty years, Marbury was her constant companion until Elsie surprising in March 1926 the attaché of the British Embassy in Paris, Sir Charles Mendl Ferdinand married. Elsie de Wolfe had a lifelong love of France and bought in 1903 along with Elisabeth Marbury and Anne Tracy Morgan, the Villa Trianon in Versailles, leaving the property restored. Despite the lack of training as a nurse she used during the First World War the wounded in the hospitals. After the war her the Medal Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor were awarded by the French government.
His breakthrough as an interior designer Elsie de Wolfe reached in 1905, when she first Women's Club The Colony Club - einrichtete in New York - founded by Florence Jaffray "Daisy" Harriman ( 1870-1967 ) and Anne Tracy Morgan ( 1873-1952 ). Elsie de Wolfe considered a pioneer and forerunner of the design scene and has made the professional mainstream. Her clients included, among others, Anne Vanderbilt, Anne Tracy Morgan, Consuelo Vanderbilt and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.