New Book: Billy Baldwin The Great American Decorator
They called him the “Dean of American Decorating.” Billy Baldwin famously conceived Cole Porter’s dark brown library and the vibrant red cotton chintz that defined fashion editor Diana Vreeland’s apartment. His famous clients included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Baby and Bill Paley.
He despised clutter, and was a classicist and modernist and a proponent of natural materials and comfort. He had a charming personality and blasted onto the New York scene under the wing of interior designer Ruby Ross Wood. He was vastly successful and influenced contemporaries Bunny Williams and Jeffrey Bilhuber.
Author Adam Lewis is an interior designer and the author of “Van Day Truex: The Man Who Defined Twentieth-Century Taste and Style” and “Albert Hadley: America’s Preeminent Interior Designer.” Lewis pieced together a comprehensive portrait of Baldwin through letters, clippings and transcripts of lectures. He presents a visual and historical homage to Baldwin with an introduction by Hadley.
