EVOLUTION OF THE WOMAN INTERIOR DESIGNER

1. EVOLUTIONOF THE WOMANINTERIORDESIGNER CTD 425- RESIDENTIAL DESIGN GROUP #8 OCTOBER 6, 2003 CREATED BY: JENNIFER CHEUNG SUZANNE DUNNING RACHAL GOLDBERG MELISSA LLOYD

2. INTERIOR DESIGN • “The Professional Interior Designer is qualified by education, experience, and examination to enhance the function and quality of interior spaces. For the purpose of improving the quality of life, increasing productivity, and protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”

3. Interior Design comprises architecture, design, fine arts, decoration, and social and economic history. • Young profession that started emerging greatly in the 1960’s with new graduate courses and specialization in all fields of design. • Before the 20th century the profession of “interior decoration” simply did not exist traditionally- it was only dealt with by upholsterers, cabinet-makers or retailers who advised on the arrangement of furniture.

4. Interior Design became more of a profession when women were less restricted by established codes of behavior concerning education and actually having a profession. • Rise of interior decoration/design has always been one of advisor and confidante. • By the 1930’s the whole profession became more formalized with the American Institute of Interior Decorators (now ASID) in 1931. • Trade magazines such as “Home Furnishings”-1929 and “The Decorator’s Digest” (now “Interior Design”) helped spread interior design.

5. Differences in Interior Decoration and Interior Design • Interior Decoration is more concerned with fashion: choosing textiles, floor and wall coverings, lighting, and an overall color scheme. • Interior Design focuses more on space planning, layout, and structural components.

6. Architects and Interior Design • Architects are considered some of the first designers because they were the only ones available to actually deal with the interior. • Architects had to join with artists to help them focus on the decoration of the interior. • Some architects who started focusing not only on the architecture of a building but also the interior were: Victor Horta, William Morris, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright

7. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT • Frank Lloyd Wright: • Wright focused on the whole interior from the architecture, furniture and textiles. • His decorations focused on horizontal and vertical areas. • Wrights’ designs were unified by oak wood treated with blond wax for all the interior.

8. VICTOR HORTA • Victor Horta: • Exploited the use of new materials and forms for not only the exterior but the interior also • Earliest interior was the Tassel House where he first used iron-frame by molding pillars and beams into organic curves (later the Art Nouveau style) • Horta felt the design of the interior should reflect the owner’s life-style, personality and taste. • He also incorporated new materials, such as, metal, carved wood and colored glass.

9. WILLIAM MORRIS TEXTILE DESIGN • William Morris: • One of the first architects who felt that art should play a role in the interior. • Morris focused on very naturalistic forms that helped inspire the Art Nouveau movement. • His designs also inspired the Aesthetic movement of the late 1860’s –1870’s. RED HOUSE INTERIOR

10. LOUIS SULLIVAN • Louis Sullivan: • Sullivan was trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts • He joined in a partnership with engineer, Dankmar Adler in Chicago in 1881. • They worked on the famous Auditorium Building 1887-1890. • Sullivan focused on covering all the structural elements and using electric light to decorate. • Sullivan used very eclectic designs, like guilded plant forms and a color scheme comprised of gold and ivory GUARANTY BUILDING AUDITORIUM BUILDING

11. First Women Interior Designers • Interior design was initially dominated by women; emerging from designing their own homes to evolving this into a profession. • Houses were symbols of status and worth, and women were always identified with houses because they were in charge of the design and management of the home, so it makes sense why women were the first designers.

12. Women were influenced and taught interior decoration by books and magazines published in the late 1890’s and early 20th century: Mrs. Beeton’s “Book of Household Management” in 1861 Mrs. E. B. Duffey’s “What a Woman Should Know” in 1871“The Queen” by Dorothy Peel

13. Some Interiors Designers will be discussed further to show their talent, innovation, and influence on helping to shape and educate the design world and profession:

14. Elsie De Wolfe ELSIE’S DRAWING ROOM

15. Elsie De Wolfe • 1865-1950 • She is known to be the first woman to work as a designer for an occupation. • At the age of 40, she began her career as an Interior Decorator. • High Victorian style was the décor of her time. • She took the grim away from the Victorian era, and used delicate materials, such as, framed mirrors in silver and gold gilded finishes. • By touring throughout Europe, she brought back unique and special elements to America.

16. Dorothy Draper AIRPLANE RESTROOM

17. Dorothy Draper • 1889-1969 • She had her own Interior Decorating business, Dorothy Draper & Company. • The first home she ever decorated was owned by the Drapers. The home received such a shock, that she was asked to create another home for the Drapers. • Oversized architectural details, was her trademark, for example, mouldings, upholstered pieces, and enormous prints. • She loved to mix greens and reds with coral, on floors and walls. • The most important project which she was honored, was The Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. • She became so well known that she was given the name “DD”. • She sold her business in 1960, and died 9 years later.

18. Edith Wharton EDITH’S BOUDOIR

19. Edith Wharton- 1862-1937: • Educated at home and taught herself with the use of her father’s extensive library. • She publihed her first non-fiction book along with Odgen Codman titled “The Decoration of Houses”, which promoted French taste, asymmetry, naturalistic ornament, and sensuous curves of the Rococo style. • Published many more books from 1900-1938. • Wharton and Elsie de Wolfe both promoted a timeless, enduring style called Louis XVI that revived in the late 19th century. • Member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. • First woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale University.

20. Betty Joel

21. Betty Joel-1896-1985: • Began her career in a workshop in Hayling Island. • Progressed to Knightsbridge showrooms and architect-designed factory in London. • Established her own furniture-making and interior decorating business after World War II. • Inspired by Art Deco to create designs such as: Riggurat-shaped book cases and curved sofas. • Important role in the founding of the Interior Design profession in Britain.

22. Eleanor McMillan Brown

23. Eleanor McMillan Brown-1980: • Graduated from a 3-year design course at New York’s School of Fine and Applied Arts. • Taught at the Parsons school • In 1924 started the first US full service interior decoration firm called McMillan, Inc. selling French furniture • Used furnishings that were affordable in “American Home” magazine • Showroom in 1940 exhibition, “Organic Design in Home Furnishing” at Museum of Modern Art in New York. • 1974-designed State Dining Room in the White House for a banquet • Mixed classical revival styles, paid attention to architectural detail and scale.

24. Mrs. Henry Parish

25. Mrs. Henry Parish, II (“Sister”): • 1910-1994 • Started her own decorating firm in 1933 • Later formed a partnership with Albert Hadley called Parish-Hadley Assocaiates • Feels a sense of continuity is extremely important for the decoration of the interior. • “Without good taste, all the knowledge in the world won’t help you make a room look right” • Firm’s work was extremely innovative, “Innovative is often the ability to reach into the past and bring back what is good, what is beautiful, what is useful, what is lasting.” • Accpeted in the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame.

26. Lilly Reich

27. Lilly Reich-born in 1885-1957: • German Interior Designer • Started as a designer of textiles and women’s apparel. • Starting at about 1925 became a constant companion of Mies van der Rohe and emigrated to the US to handle his business and personal affairs. • Worked with interior design along the side of Mies and later became the first woman to teach interior design (which included furniture design) at Bauhaus. • She also worked with Mies on the Barcelona Pavillion.

28. FLORENCE KNOLL • Florence Knoll: • Educated at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago under Mies van der Rohe • Married Hans Knoll of Knoll furniture company in 1939. • In 1943 became partner in the company and created the Knoll Planning Unit to handle interiors. • Crusaded for contemporary, modern designs • Created an environment where women could have legitimate profession where male architects considered interior designers on the same level asthemselves

29. Interior Design has been a slow evolving profession. It started with architects who finally realized that the interior, not only the exterior should be a focus. So, as stated, architects paired up with artists and eventually women to help decorate and later design the interior of buildings. In the beginning, women dominated the interior decoration/design world but now males and females are involved with the design of interior spaces and this is all due to very strong, driven women who wanted a career.