In the pantheon of twentieth-century interior design, few names carry the quiet authority of Billy Baldwin (1903–1983). Known simply as “Billy” to clients who ranged from Jackie Kennedy to Babe Paley, Baldwin defined a distinctly American elegance: urbane, tailored, and timeless. If Dorothy Draper conjured fantasy and Sister Parish invented cozy chic, Baldwin distilled modernismContinue reading “Billy Baldwin: The Dean of American Decoration”
Tag Archives: Style
The Glamour of New Year’s Eve Style
New Year’s Eve has always been more than a date — it is a performance. The last night of the year invites transformation: sequins shimmer brighter, velvet feels richer, champagne tastes sharper. Fashion has long been the language of this ritual, each decade reinventing how the midnight hour should look. The Jazz Age Sparkle InContinue reading “The Glamour of New Year’s Eve Style”
Truman Capote’s Swans: Society’s Last Great Myth
In the gilded world of mid-century society, there existed a rarefied circle of women who seemed to embody elegance itself. They were wealthy, beautiful, impeccably dressed — but above all, they were admired for their poise. Truman Capote, who both adored and betrayed them, christened them his “swans.” To this day, their names evoke aContinue reading “Truman Capote’s Swans: Society’s Last Great Myth”
Babe Paley: The Perfection of Style
In the constellation of twentieth-century American society, no star glittered quite like Babe Paley (1915–1978). Born Barbara Cushing in Boston — one of the famed “Cushing Sisters,” whose marriages connected them to American dynasties — she rose to become not merely a socialite but a myth: the woman who defined what it meant to beContinue reading “Babe Paley: The Perfection of Style”
Little Edie Beale: The Cult of Grey Gardens
American culture has always harbored a fascination with women who live on the edges of society’s expectations. Few embody this fascination more vividly than Edith Bouvier Beale — “Little Edie” — the reclusive socialite turned cult icon immortalized in Albert and David Maysles’ 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. Draped in improvised turbans, brooches, and scarves, sheContinue reading “Little Edie Beale: The Cult of Grey Gardens”
Grey Gardens at 50: The Eccentric American Dream
Today marks fifty years since the premiere of Grey Gardens on September 27, 1975 — the Maysles brothers’ documentary that unveiled the eccentric, crumbling world of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter “Little Edie.” Half a century later, the film remains as haunting and magnetic as ever: a portrait of decline and resilience that hasContinue reading “Grey Gardens at 50: The Eccentric American Dream”
My World of Interiors 