I’ve devoted a lot of free time to reading about the great designers of our time---Elsie de Wolfe, Mark Hampton, David Hicks, Colefax and Fowler, Frances Elkins, Dorothy Draper and Sister Parish. One might say that my tastes lean towards the classics. One might be right. But what I noticed was that our contemporaries also leaned on these beacons of style and continue to do so. I love Tory Burch, Mark Sikes, Charlotte Moss, India Hicks and Alexia Hampton, and each has had many inspirations but are often founded in the basics. Sister Parish for me, might be the greatest among them. I love her initiative and fearlessness when deciding to supplement the family income, she opened her own decorating business, in a time when women in trade was socially unacceptable. But she was not one to succumb to a life of servile trade. No. She maintained integrity and respect for her work, even at the expensive of some of her most famous clients. Take a read of this summary for more.
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