Sister Parish: The Life of the Legendary American Interior Designer

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Sister -- as she was always called by family and friends -- was born Dorothy May Kinnicutt into a patrician New York family in 1910 and spent her privileged early life at the right schools, yacht clubs, and coming-out parties. Compelled to work during the lean years of the Depression, Sister combined her innate design ability with her upper-echelon social connections to create an extraordinarily successful interior decorating business. The Parish-Hadley firm's list of clients reads like an American Who's Who, starting with Astors, Kennedys, Paleys, Rockefellers, and Whitneys. She helped Jacqueline Kennedy transform the White House from a fusty hodge-podge into a historically authentic symbol of American elegance. For her clients, she was an indispensable presence, both in their salons and designing them. Sister's style, marked by cozy, airy, colorful, but understated elegance, came to be known as American country, and its influence continues to this day. Compiled by Apple Parish Bartlett and Susan Bartlett Crater from Sister's own unpublished memoirs, as well as from hundreds of interviews with family members, friends, staff, world-renowned interior designers , and clients , Sister Parish takes the reader right into the houses -- and the lives -- of some of the most fascinating and famous people of this inimitable womanÆs time. Long out of print, this acclaimed biography -- a New York Times Notable Book -- of the doyenne of American interior design is once again available to acquaint a whole new generation of designers and design lovers with the charismatic woman who redefined interior design in America. Fully updated, the revised edition features a new Foreword by Albert Hadley and an Appreciation by Bunny Williams, who began her career at Parish-Hadley.