NYSD, Last Night in New York

Last night in New York. Interior designer Maureen Footer has written an interesting book on American interior design, “George Stacey and the Creation of American Chic” (Rizzoli, publishers), and last night there was a book signing for her at La Grenouille.

I didn’t make it to the signing but I have seen the book. Interior design books have been very popular for quite some time now, and many of them cross my desk. All are interesting in showing a designer (or designers’) works. Ms. Footer’s book on George Stacey who was a very much sought after designer beginning in the 1930s, is not only about his work for his clients but also about the style (and “chic”) of that era.

Among Stacey’s great supporters (and clients) were Diana Vreeland and a raft of the prominent social figures in New York mid-20th century, including Minnie Cushing Astor, her sisters Babe Paley and Betsey Whitney, Marie Harriman, Lil Isles, Princess Grace of Monaco. The shelter and fashion magazines such as Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, House & Garden, Town & Country were avid about Stacey’s work also.

Ms. Footer is an expert on Stacey whose works she has long admired for the irreverence of his designs, his erudition, flair for color and innate grasp of balance, scale, and proportion. She will be talking about this on May 18th at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s House in Lenox, if you’re in the neighborhood.

Although my interest in and knowledge about interior design is very limited, I found the book stimulating as a visual social history of the era during the years of the Great Depression and the years following the Second World War. Plus, it’s just a beautiful book.