ELLE and women in design

November 22, 2:10 AMHome and Living ExaminerAndrea Campbell

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ELLE DECOR magazine and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum recently launched a new event called “Women in Design.” Initiated by Margaret Russell, Editor-in-Chief of ELLE DECOR, and Cara McCarty, Cooper-Hewitt Curatorial Director, the women wanted to create a new annual event that celebrates outstanding female achievement in architecture, communications, fashion, interior, landscape and product design. Held November 17 at the Harold Pratt House in New York City, and co-sponsored by HSBC Bank and Swiss watchmakers Rado, below are some pictures and an interview I got with the press agent.

Q.: What did the founders hope to gain from this type of showing?

A.: The idea was to bring awareness of and inspiration to the women who pioneered and paved the way for today’s most influential women in design. Though the impact of men on these fields can’t be denied, it was a woman, Elsie de Wolfe, who launched the profession of interior design as we know it. "For some, design is merely decoration, but for women in design, it is so much more—it is essential," says Russell (Cara McCarty, Margaret Russell, right).

Readers can view the Video at: http://tiny.cc/0hisH

Q.: Was the video run as part of the presentation? I enjoyed it very much and loved seeing a historical tribute done about the great women of design. What can you say about the women chosen?

A.: Yes. The video creates a wonderful sense of the past. There was a panelist discussion with today’s leading ladies in design. And the 2008 Vision Award went to Paula Wallace, president of the creative breeding ground of tomorrow’s women in design, Savannah College of Art and Design.

Ladies in Design—Past
Elsie De Wolfe was an actress turned arbiter of style, with a signature French-influenced aesthetic. In the early 1900s, her passion for bringing the outdoors in helped make American homes less stuffy, and her confident, fashion-forward embrace of leopard print, mirrored surfaces, and golden shades of beige transformed the 1920s

Frances Elkins was a decorator who defined high style in the 1930s and 40s. She was sophisticated, daring—discovering and showcasing the work of European modernists like Jean-Michel Frank in her interiors before nearly anyone else.

Dorothy Draper, the diva of public spaces, left her bold mark on hotels, casinos, apartment house lobbies and restaurants throughout the mid 20th century with dramatic moldings, overscale patterns, and brilliant contrasts of color.

Eleanor McMillen Brown brought a keen business sense and high standards of professionalism to the industry. Her elegant point of view, fine furnishings, and enthusiasm for modern design resulted in graceful interiors that won the hearts of postwar Americans.

Nancy Lancaster, an expat American tastemaker, shook up English society by insisting that the grandest rooms should be enjoyed and lived in; she employed cheerful fabrics, the clutter of daily life, and an intriguing array of styles and periods. Her iconic butter-yellow drawing room is a touchstone in the study of interior decoration.

Sister Parish, (worked for many years with her partner Albert Hadley), launched her business during the Great Depression to her retirement in 1992. Known for her use of vivid colors and charming displays of clients’ personal collections. She championed American handicrafts, but it was her classic, comfortable look that won her the job of redecorating the White House for the Kennedys.

Q.: Margaret Russell and Cynthia Rowley have captured a different and more public audience with their recent television appearances on the Bravo designer series, but what would you like the public to know about the other great women in contemporary design today? (At right: Margaret Russell, Annabelle Selldorf, Bunny Williams, Cynthia Rowley, Celerie Kemble)

A.:  Annabelle Selldorf –Reached new heights as an architect when her face was plastered across a 77-foot billboard, alongside that of Philip Johnson. Last year, images of Johnson and the German-born Selldorf graced an ad for New York’s Urban Glass House condominiums. The interiors Selldorf designs take cues from architecture’s fundamentals: scale, volume, light…That aesthetic has translated seamlessly to fashion in Selldorf’s women’s-wear department for the Barneys New York flagship and her Rubin Chapelle boutique downtown.

Celerie Kemble - Kemble's childhood was in many ways a design tutorial spent in construction sites, antique stores, and in the unique homes designed by her mother, Mimi McMakin of Palm Beach's Kemble Interiors. For 12 years she has been working as a residential and commercial interior designer based out of New York City. She’s created a trade fabric collection with F. Schumacher, faux leather and technical surfaces with Valtekz, a recycled commercial fabric for Valley Forge Textiles, and furniture with Laneventure.

Bunny Williams - Bunny opened her own company in 1988 after twenty-two years with the venerable decorating firm, Parish-Hadley Associates. Objects, patterns, textures and colors, beautifully balanced, have an appealing undisciplined look—the direct result of great focus and planning. Williams' passion for design extends beyond interiors into the garden. Bunny co-owns Treillage Ltd., a garden furniture and ornament shop in New York, with antiques dealer John Rosselli.