INSIDE ICONIC INTERIORS
From Bunny Mellon’s garden dreamscapes to Deeda Blair’s intrepid elegance.
More than ever, now is the time to rejoice in the comforts of home. And for a healthy dose of nostalgia, we invite you to explore the worlds of style curated by iconic female tastemakers and philanthropists over the last century. Whether you’re hosting a dinner party for one, replenishing your space to lift your mood, or just looking for an escape, these four women offer a plethora of inspiration.
Deeda Blair
Where science meets style: Blair is known for her enduring elegance (exemplified in her timeless yet distinctly ‘60s-era bouffant) and her unadulterated commitment to the medical community.
Pictured:
Vogue, March 01, 1972 - Public health advocate Catherine "Deeda" Blair, wearing a red-accented GIVENCHY dress, stands by the white-painted wrought-iron railing of the terrace of her Washington, D.C. home, accompanied by a dog. Photo by Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images.
“Most scientists are astonished by Deeda Blair’s style, and the style mavens are surprised by her scientific expertise,” begins the New York Times’ profile of Blair. Her love of fashion (she used to be a regular at the Paris Couture shows and considers the late Hubert de GIVENCHY a dear friend) is matched by an unwavering lifelong commitment to medical science—specifically AIDS, cancer research, and more recently mental health. Famous for wearing monochromatic palettes and architectural lines (she once said, “I don't care to glitter”), Blair’s style is an idiosyncratic blend of classic and intrepid. Inside her Manhattan East River apartment today, a symphony of grays and Venetian blues form the canvas for everything from 18th-century French furniture to Japanese art and Vladimir Kanevsky’s porcelain hyacinths. Perhaps her words describe it best: “Real elegance is having convictions.”
de la Renta
The widow of the late OSCAR DE LA RENTA, Annette is a worldly connoisseur of the arts famous for creating homes as cozy as they are grand.
Pictured:
Oscar and Annette de la Renta at the door of their Connecticut country house. Photo by François Halard.
As the wife of one of America’s most celebrated and beloved designers, Annette de la Renta was always going to be a beacon of modern glamour. But her influence reaches well beyond fashion too. A lover of books (you’ll find them on every wall and surface in her abode) and a respected patron of the arts (she has served on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, and the Morgan Library), French-born de la Renta is known for expertly cultivating the art of living, evident in the laidback ease she brings to her well-appointed homes, suffused with effervescent undertones of island greenery, wicker, blue, and airy whites that nod to Oscar’s native Dominican Republic. It’s no wonder she’s oft-described as the kind of woman who encourages her guests to hang around post dinner.
Pauline de
Rothschild
The American-born, France-raised icon is celebrated for her individual taste and entrepreneurial spirit—she wrote a novel, worked as a fashion designer during WWII, and founded the world-famous Chateau Mouton wine museum together with her husband.
Pictured:
Pauline de Rothschild in her bedroom at the Chateau de Mouton, her French country retreat. Photo by Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images.
Rumor has it the baroness prepped for her legendary dinner parties by sifting through hundreds of table linen swatches and a picture file of around 180 sets of china. What's for certain: Pauline de Rothschild did not do things by halves. Born Pauline Potter in Baltimore, USA, she grew up in France and spoke French before graduating to English. Armed with a very Parisian confidence (and, often, a chic long braid that trailed down her back), she moved to New York during WWII and worked in fashion, eventually designing for Hattie Carnegie—a job which reportedly made her one of the highest-paid women in the United States. After marrying famed vineyard owner Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Pauline transformed the couple’s magnificent chateau in Bordeaux with Gracie wallpaper; moss-covered dining tables; and filled its rooms with well-heeled guests plucked from the worlds of art, politics, and science. In her later years, Rothschild uncharacteristically wore jeans and T-shirts for virtually every occasion, yet she is remembered for her avant-garde sophistication and unconventional fashion, such as styling a gown over cigarette pants back in the Sixties. Fun fact: she was distant cousins with Vogue editor Diana Vreeland.
Bunny Mellon
Self-taught Mellon became a legendary horticulturist who championed an understated yet refined aesthetic and redesigned the White House Rose Garden and The King’s Kitchen Garden at Versailles.
Pictured:
Blue and white vase filled with a flourish of green flowers, from the garden of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. Vogue 1965. Photo by Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images.
It may come as a surprise to some that one of America’s greatest landscape gardeners was not only a woman, but self-taught too. The daughter of the heir to Listerine, Bunny Mellon grew up in Princeton, New Jersey—and though technically christened “Rachel,” the affectionate nickname (coined by her childhood nanny) stuck right up until her death at the age of 103. It was during her upbringing, always fascinated by the family’s well-appointed grounds, that Mellon began to develop the organic-looking simplicity that would become her signature aesthetic (“nothing should be noticed,” was her rule of thumb). Eventually, she would go on to design her friends’ gardens, including the White House Rose Garden at the request of the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. And her own homes in Virginia, Antigua, Cape Cod, New York, and more reflected her refreshing taste: she brought the outside in, decorating every room with herb trees, topiaries, horticultural books, or a charming stack of baskets. From an original van Gogh left propped on a chair (her art collection is another story in and of itself) to Colefax and Fowler upholstery purposely designed to look as if chanced upon the attic to her gardening clothes—a crisp short-sleeve shirt and high-waisted pants, designed at her personal request by Cristóbal BALENCIAGA—Mellon’s aesthetic captures the irresistible paradox of casual luxury.
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