Elsie De Wolfe Research Paper

Introduction

At the end of nineteen century, the implication of home inner design had not yet stationary. However, Elise de Wolfe used her aesthetic sensibility and her family background to introduce aesthetics to the field of architecture. The professional term "interior design” now born in architect’s industrial. She subverted the prevailing Victorian design. Her work was considered as a break through from old design and a cornerstone of merging modern interior design. She was hailed as one of those pioneers who prevailed on the development of the career of interior design.

In an era which Elsie de Wolfe from, the society was still essentially a continuation of the ideals of bourgeois society, the architecture field was fully dominated by men at that time. In contrast, women assumed the responsibility

of household matters and anything which related to the inner home. Society divided in two main social spheres of labor, "men dominate outside, women control inside". Conversely, the rapid progress in industrialization required great number of workers in the social context, lots of middle class women had to enter the labor market, in exchange for meager wages to sustain for family.
By the 1920s, the United States granted women's voting right and others started to become affected, women began to obtain a higher pay job; in trade for becoming financially independent. With the development of modern architecture, modern residential design grew along and required with more designers, after the war, "the interior becomes acceptable, and turn into a new category of female professional work."

Elsie De Wolfe’s Life

Elsie De Wolfe (1865-1950) was born in descent wealthy family in New York, her father was a doctor.

She easily access to higher education, it also brought her to the upper-class society. Nevertheless, her father, who began to indulge in gambling and left enormous amount of debt once him dead, Though, Elsie De Wolfe did not follow social expectation to use marriage to support her financial situation; she chose to work as a stage actress. De Wolfe has captured her sense of fashionable style when she was stage actress; she was also an extraordinary business woman. When her acting career didn’t match up her expectation, “she found another way to attract sizable crowds to the theater. Dressing in the latest Paris fashions and designing sets made up of genuine (often priceless) antiques, de Wolfe cultivated her own special form of bourgeois theater.”(Gibson, K. K. 2009, P. 250) She became well known as world's most fashionable person in that time. Women observed her fashion image and emulated of her clothing or dress. Soon, she started to design her own theater stages, from lighting to any decoration details; which prompted her attention to interior design field

later.

In De Wolfe’s actress time, she met the most significant person in her life --Elisabeth Marbury, who was her roommate and formed a long-term partnership with. Elisabeth Marbury from a very wealthy family, and always travel in high-class society. A lot of De Wolfe‘s interior design works were introduced by Elisabeth. In particular, when De Wolfe renovated their home in Irving Place; many celebrities, artists and intellectuals visited frequently. Hence, celebrities gained insight of how did interior decoration change the feel, look, and function of the spaces. At that juncture, celebrities started to invite Elsie to give them home decorating advice, even entrust her to start interior design work at their home environment.
Even Elsie De Wolfe might not the only one to do home decoration; however, she was the first one to put interior design work to the business table. In 1907, her interior design for New York Colonial Club drove her to the most fame overnight. Under her architect friend--Stanford White invitation, she joined and participated in part of architectural design plan for The Colony Club, and she mainly focus on interior design for the club. This was considered unusual in architectural business; normally buildings' interior would be designed or decorated directly by the architect. In contrast, this created the basic business model of nowadays interior design. The club was known as the first public female club. “De Wolfe continued to exploit commodity culture by preying on the insecurities of working class housewives.” (Gibson, K. K. 2009, P. 250)

Initials personality of De Wolfe

Ms. De Wolfe is Intelligent, venture person. Her apparel character and braveness of inversion the Old design strategy attracts me the most. She was not just only noticeable by her interior work, her braveness also famously known as "first woman to sue the United States Government over taxes." Nielsen, John. "(New York Times, Dec 24 1987.) She was feminist supporter. Her success encouraged women and housewives to develop their education and social status. She provided job opportunities for women work outside their own home. In World War I, she also became nurse in France, in which she earned the Croix de Guerre. In the fashion industry, her name became a trendsetter; she was also recognized as the first celebrity to dye hair.

The revolution of new design
Her design was focusing on comfort ability, contemporary, sophisticated, unpretentious and cheerful. She was leader transformation that overturns the Victorian style and developed her own idiosyncratic style. The rise of the middle-class in 1910s, people were tending to be facsimile nobles style to enhance their social status; it turned out they were just blindly shadow them. She had declared in her book “The House in Good Taste” about historic traditions of architecture and real aesthetic of a house“When I am asked to decorate a new house, my first thought is suitability. My next thought is proportion. Always I keep in mind the importance of simplicity.” (Elsie De Wolfe, 1913, Pg.6)The traditional Victorian home style often included dark shape, burgundy, and the dark green colors. These designs were over wall decorated, and heavy metal framed painting cover all over the walls. Mid-class’ houses were usually smaller and narrow then the upper classes, The tones of applications sheltered the dark atmosphere in the small house, overcrowded furniture made the room lifeless.
De Wolfe introduced the fresh concepts of home decoration, In Her book The House in Good Taste, she explained “For with all the intrepidity and passion of the later Eighteenth Century in its search for beauty, for all the magic-making of convenience and ingenuity of the Nineteenth Century, the fundamentals have changed but little. And now we of the Twentieth Century can only add material comforts and an expression of our personality.” (Elsie de Wolfe, 1913, pg. 4-5) She used light color paint for interior wall or used to cover old darkish wood, and eliminated all excessive heavy furniture. She highly utilized calico fabric as materials for drapes, tablecloths, sofas; in order to create an integral sense and highlight the overall atmosphere of the space. Her main design idea came from conformability and simplicity instead of luxury only. She designed seating mostly with armrests, backrest and cushion. Advocate breaking Victorian’s heavy dull and dark interior space, she emphasized large sized windows. Plus, increase indoor brightness by expending of large number of indoor lighting and using mirror reflection techniques to draw a bright, cheerful sensation into home.
The new elegant style and simplify furnishing refutes the historical Victorian style’s rigidity, inflexible and complicated. Bright colors and mostly geometric linear rhythm, subversion Victorian’s grandiose carved; it presents the major conversion of modern style.

Conclusion
Elsie De Wolfe demonstrated the aesthetic trend in her time for subversion in her design by using her instinct; she debated the erroneous use of old Victorian design. As in patriarchal society, Elsie expended her talent to prove women can be work in business. Elsie De Wolfe truly showcases her revolutionary nature for gender equality and in interior design filed in society. Even up to these day, her designs and works still sturdily enthused lots of Designer.