For my final blog post, I am supposed to write about either a historical or modern Interior Designer that inspires me. I chose to write about Elsie De Wolfe. She was born in 1865 and grew up to become a stage actress, while acting she also designed her own sets. She later moved on to become an Interior Decorator and is accredited with being the first woman to do so. She was a decorator for the very elite socialites of the time. During this time the popular style was the victorian style. Elsie, however, preferred to use beiges, and whites along with using natural light as much as possible to move away from the heavily decorated and dark victorian style. Throughout her life, she had a partner in Elizabeth "Bessie" Marbury whom she lived with until she died despite her having been married to Sir Charles Mendl. Alongside her popularity due to her designs, she was also popular because she and Bessie threw parties, she created the "Pink Lady" drink and blue hair dye, and was known to wear white gloves and a string of pearls. Elsie De Wolfe inspires me because not only was she an amazingly talented woman who knew she was good and fought to prove so, but she knew who she was and was not afraid to show it. She was the first woman to be an Interior Designer and Decorator and was the first to charge for her time as well as willing to stay true to herself even if that was not the popular or common way of doing things at that time.
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