Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/946707
Above, from left: Dorothy Draper Bali Ha'i in mandarin and Brazilliance wallpaper. Dorothy Draper, circa 1930s. Images courtesy of Dorothy Draper & Company, Inc. 70 recognizable style has been emulated the world over. Her use of vibrant, splashy colors in unusual combinations — such as aubergine and pink, with chartreuse and turquoise — helped reimagine grand public spaces in hotels around the world including The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia, The Breakers in Palm Beach, and the Carlyle in NYC. She did castles in Ireland, and famously, the restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the U.S. ambassador's residence in Japan, presidential yachts, the West Virginia governor's mansion, and rooms at the White House during the Carter administration. Her signature cabbage-rose chintz was paired with bold stripes, and she was fond of employing elaborate plaster designs and moldings on walls and ceilings. Oversized, highly lacquered doors were another hallmark. Her modern Baroque style was the epitome of Hollywood Regency glamour in the homes of Joan Crawford, Ethel Merman, Judy Garland, and Laurance Rockefeller. Draper designed the exuberant, large- scaled fabrics and wallpapers for her projects, which continue to be sold today through Dorothy Draper & Company, many in updated colors, along with new collections inspired by her original creations. The same printmaking process has been used for decades, with designs hand-drawn and painted onto custom screens. Individual screens are made for each color, and because some prints have more than 20 colors, the time-consuming endeavor creates a multidimensional effect. As director of design Brinsley Matthews says, the firm adheres to Draper's design philosophy of true, clear colors: "That means no autumnal or dying colors. Life is for living!" The Greenbrier resort in West Virginia famously decorated by Dorothy Draper in 1946 The Colony Hotel The Greenbrier