Product Description

• First illustrated monograph on this seminal American designer

• 200 never-before-published photographs, artifacts, and ephemera from the Draper Inc. archive

Has there ever been an American decorator as famous as Dorothy Draper? Like Martha Stewart, Draper was a preacher and teacher whose how-to books and Good Housekeeping columns provided middle-class housewives with affordable ideas for making their homes more functional and comfortable. Thanks to her originality as a stylist and her daring as a businesswoman, she became one of the most respected career women in the United States. She shocked the design world in 1937 when she decorated the thirty-seven-story Hampshire House apartment hotel on Central Park South in New York City, delivering a project that became indicative of her signature touch "baroque fantasy."

In the Pink: Dorothy Draper, America's Most Fabulous Decorator, by Carleton Varney, lavishly illustrates for first time Draper's most important projects. From the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia and Quitandinha in Brazil to her important fabrics for F. Schumacher & Co. and her automobile and airplane interiors of the 1950s, Draper continues to influence designers today. Varney, who is uniquely positioned as the author of this book, joined the Dorothy Draper, Inc. in 1960, when he was twenty-nine years old. Forty-two years later, he continues to keep her legend alive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53879 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

As History & Biography: Bravo! As Design Inspiration: Blah!
I bought this book for my wife, who is an artist and color consultant, because I thought she'd enjoy seeing an iconic designer known for her bold use of color and thematic environments -- especially done on a grand scale. And, yes, you will find page after page after page of grand ballrooms, hotel lobbies, mansion-size dining rooms, and so on here.

80% of them, unfortunately, are photographed in black & white. So much for the bold use of color.

There are two great color photos -- pages 161 and 207 -- that show off Draper's lush, vibrant style. But the rest of the book is either slightly out of focus color photos, color illustrations and old ads, or black & white photos. It's just sad in how it under-represents Dorothy Draper.

"But be fair," you say. "Dorothy Draper's peak took place before the advent of color photography." That's fine. But this book is a perfect example of the rare publishing project that truly is BEGGING for Photoshop colorization. On page 53, for example, the text refers to a House & Garden magazine article which declared one of Draper's most visible design projects, Hampshire House, to be "a gold mine of decorating ideas, particularly in color." And yet all four photos on that spread are in black & white, as are the spreads before and after it. A very good Photoshop artist -- and several do perfect, true-to-life work -- could give those old black & white shots the vivid, vibrant colors that would represent Dorothy Draper properly and accurately without changing Draper's style one iota.

As I say in my title, as a history (of the advent of superstar designers) and a biography (of Draper), this is a very good book that should not be overlooked. But how can you do a history of bold interior design, or a biography of a top interior designer, without SHOWING the vivacious use of color which was central to both? That's like doing a bio of Abe Lincoln without including the Gettysburg Address.

So is this worth seeing? Definitely. Worth buying used? Probably. Worth buying new? Only if you're rich.

Disappointing
As an avid fan of Dorothy Draper style, I found the quality of the photography, and the lack of color photos, frustrating. In this digital age, it would have been interesting, and possible, to view the b/w photos alongside a digitally colored version to get the real impact of these beautiful rooms. A few glossy pages would have also helped. Happy to have this book in my collection, but unlikely it will be viewed as frequently and lovingly as Kelly Wearstler's books.

Outside of book is beautifull,inside a bit dissapointing.
The book is very well made and the photography is good given the age of the photos available. But it is mainly about hotels,lobbies and so on. I would like to have seen more houses of individual clients as well and more rooms done by Carleton Varney of a recent date. I think we will have to wait for a book about Carleton Varney himself to see the "Draper" touch in this century.