Elsie de Wolfe was an interior decorator before there was such a thing. And if she wasn’t making headlines for covering 18th century footstools in leopard print, she was in the newspapers for her eccentric blue hair, her affinity for small dogs (see here, here, and here), and unique preferences for physical fitness.
Born in New York, NY just after the end of the Civil War, Elsie became “Lady Elsie” when she was presented to Queen Victoria and London society, (a quite unusual honor for an American girl at the time). This experience focused her vision of life on elegance, refinement, fashion, and good taste. She came into the profession of interior design somewhat serendipitously. Known as a member of New York’s Gilded Age high society with Anne Vanderbilt and Anne Morgan (see here , here and here), Elsie worked as a professional actress. But it was her on-stage attire that garnered attention from critics and audiences alike, not just her performances. Soon she changed her business from decorating the stage to decorating houses and took up residence at the Washington Irving House in New York City in the 1890s with her lifelong companion Elisabeth “Bessy” Marbury, a successful literary and theater agent, their apartment serving as a design showroom.
