The Works of Elise de Wolfe,Eleanor Brown, and Dorothy Draper

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Interior Decorators such as Elsie de Wolfe, Eleanor McMillen Brown, and Dorothy Draper helped to pave the way for the Interior Design profession today. Their influential decisions to stray away from the Victorian style of design helped guide both the interior decorating profession, as well as architects who no longer wanted to design in the bulky and cluttered Victorian Style.
Elsie de Wolfe designed during the Victorian movement, however “had adopted the 1890’s preference for Neoclassicism” (Smith, 22). Unlike the cluttered and dark interiors of an average Victorian interior, her interiors were, “in the words of one visitor, ‘[models] of simplicity’” (Smith, 20). She redecorated the once cluttered dining room of her apartment in the 1890’s, stripping away the heavy Victorian decoration and replacing it with furniture and accessories to lighten the room. “Eleanor Brown’s style was based on French classicism, the prevailing taste in American society that had been established by Elsie De Wolfe twenty years before” (Smith, 100). Contrary to many of the decorators of her time, she also designed in the Directoire and English Regency style (Smith, 100), as French and English interiors were where she drew a lot of her inspiration from. In 1928, Brown designed an apartment for herself that included many styles, including Greek revival, Classical Revival, and even some late-Art Deco design. Dorothy Draper designed in the “classical late-Art Deco, Greek-Egyptian” (Smith, 105) style. In the 1930’s, she also started to design in the Neo-Baroque style. She “was the first American woman decorator to concentrate on nonresidential design” (Smith, 104). “According to Carlton Varney,… ‘Draper revolutionized the concept of design by breaking away ...

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...ian Science Monitor, 01 Dec. 1982. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Smith, C. Ray. Interior Design in 20th-century America: A History. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Vogel, Carol. "Eleanor Brown Is Dead at 100; Interior Designer Pioneered Field." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Jan. 1991. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
“Women of Influence.” Hospitality Design 32.5 (2010): 79. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

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