Elsie de wolfe biography of william

Olga de Meyer , Osterley Park , London, Interior, State Bed at Osterley Park , Otto Hermann Kahn Addie Wolff , Mrs Patrick Campbell. Tea Room, City Palace, Potsdam , Robert Bruce , age 21, Samuel L. Barlow II decorator Ernesta Beaux , A Dripping Fountain, Palace of Versailles , La Galerie des Glaces, Palace of Versailles , A image of Elsie de Wolfe.

Apart from interior design, de Wolfe loved flowers, small dogs and couture clothing. As a young woman, de Wolfe participated in amateur theatricals, a favorite Gilded Age pastime. Through this circle met Bessy Marbury, who became her devoted lover and mentor for the next 40 years. Nearly a decade her senior, Marbury came from a rich and prominent New York family and had already trail-blazed a new profession as a literary agent and theatrical manager, with Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw among her clients.

Neither a beauty nor a talent, all de Wolfe had going for her as an actress was a petite, willowy figure ideally suited to the fashions of the day. Captivated by her fetching outfits, female theatergoers began ordering the same styles or having them copied, turning De Wolfe into a fashion leader. Years later, in , she was voted the best-dressed woman in the world.

Now sharing a home with Marbury, de Wolfe was encouraged by her partner to use the space as a canvas for her ideas about interior design. George Beckwith, Mr. In , de Wolfe married Sir Charles Mendl and moved to Beverly Hills, California, where she continued to startle her contemporaries with her innovative designs. 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.

Email Print. Read more. Latest headlines. Looking for someone? Please read our privacy policy. June 20, 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. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.

A few weeks later, de Wolfe traveled to New York for a personal reconciliation with her long time companion, and the two continued their post-war pattern Vanderbilt One. Two days later, November 28, p. Reginald Fellowes a. Daisy Fellowes of Paris and London was the best-dressed woman anywhere. Archived from the original on August 8, Retrieved June 18, New-York Tribune.

Elsie de wolfe biography of william

April 5, Gaylord Hausers New Treasury of Secrets. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition. Birth, death dates: with regard to her date of birth, the Times says she "rarely discussed her childhood" and "differences of opinion existed Retrieved August 21, Further reading [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elsie de Wolfe.

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Toggle the table of contents. Elsie de Wolfe. Elsie de Wolfe, Ella Anderson de Wolfe December 20, c. July 12, aged 90 Versailles , France. Actress interior decorator author.