Billy baldwin decorator biography
View Slideshow
The dean of indigenous decorators (he abhorred the term interior designer), Billy Baldwin was at once a classicist and a modernist. Though his aesthetic emotions were from time to time stirred by things Continental, in general he disdained the florid, baroque and rococo in favor of the clean-cut, hard-edged and pared-down. Among his early influences were Frances Elkins, perhaps the most sophisticated decorator of her day, and Jean-Michel Frank, whom he described categorically as "the last genius of French furniture."
Baldwin's own work was slick, in the positive sense: neat, trim and tidy—indeed, immaculate. It was also snappy: everything tailored, starched and polished—yet at the same time uncontrived-looking. Above all, it was American. "We can recognize and give credit where credit is due, to the debt of taste we owe Europe, but we have taste, too," he declared. He would live to see his own name become a byword for exemplary American design.
For Baldwin, who was partial to plump deep-seated sofas and chairs, the ultimate luxury was comfort. "First and foremost, furniture must be comfortable," he decreed. "That is the original purpose of it, after all." He usually had it upholstered straight to the floor, believing that too many naked chair legs left a room looking "restless."
Eclectic where furniture was concerned, he championed "a mixture of all nationalities, old and new," but one of the canons he carried at the forefront of his mind was that there must be a connection between the various pieces. That connection, not surprisingly, was quality, in the name of which he favored pieces of contemporary design over reproductions of antiques. Unlike most decorators', Baldwin's first impulse was to use some of the furniture the client already possessed—"I do not necessarily believe in throwing out everything and starting from scratch." The full atmosphere or mood Legendary American decorator Billy Baldwin is known for many things, not the least of which is his affinity for simplicity. This may come as a surprise to a generation of design enthusiasts who, like myself, have only come to know Mr. Baldwin through books, stories, quotations, and magazine articles chronicling his work since his death in 1983. After all, with a client roster that includes names like Cole Porter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Bunny Mellon, Pauline de Rothschild, Diana Vreeland, and Babe Paley, “simplicity” is just not the first word that comes to mind. Yet those who knew him well personally and professionally know that in spite of his debonair dress, elegant carriage, and worldly point of view, a fundamental embrace of simplicity—expressed as a brilliant amalgam of comfort and efficiency—is as true a characterization of Mr. Baldwin and his work as any other ascribed to him over the years. This 1835 Greek Revival house was decorated by Baldwin and published in the February 1980 issue of House & Garden. Nowhere did his commitment to simplicity manifest more clearly than during Mr. Baldwin’s time spent on Nantucket, where he lived when he died—and where his love for design first stirred within him. The island, where Baldwin summered with his family for many years and lived during his retirement, had a profound impact on the Baltimorean—and, to hear Baldwin tell it during this a 1976 interview with Nantucket 3’s Maureen O’Sullivan, sparked his interest in what would become his calling as the father of all-American style. “I was…perfectly fascinated by the architecture. There were no saltbox houses in Maryland [where I lived],” said Baldwin in 1976. “I saw those magnificent whaling captain houses on Main Street…It whetted my appetite more than I could possibly imagine for what became my profession.” Billy Baldwin interview for the Nantucket Hi New York interior decorator (1903–1983) William Baldwin, Jr. (May 30, 1903 – November 25, 1983), known as Billy Baldwin and nicknamed Billy B, was a New Yorkinterior decorator, characterized in an obituary as the "dean of interior decorators". He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1974. Baldwin was born on May 30, 1903, in Roland Park, Maryland and studied architecture at Princeton, dropping out after two years. He attended Truman Capote's Black and White Ball at the Plaza in 1966. Baldwin died of a heart ailment on November 25, 1983, at Nantucket Cottage Hospital on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. He was openly gay. Starting in 1935, Baldwin was employed by Ruby Ross Wood, and when she died in 1950, he took over the firm. In 1952, he formed his own firm, Baldwin and Martin, with Edward Martin. They decorated the White House of John F. Kennedy, and designed the houses and apartments of many well-known people, such as Cole Porter, Mary Wells Lawrence, Billy Rose, Rachel Lambert Mellon and Paul Mellon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Mike Nichols, Harvey Ladew, Babe Paley and William S. Paley, Pauline de Rothschild, Greta Garbo, Barbara Hutton, and Diana Vreeland. Baldwin's commercial clients included the Round Hill Club in Greenwich, CT, the Kenneth hair salon in New York City, and La Florentina in the South of France. In 1972, Baldwin designed a line of furniture (including his famous Slipper Chair), which continues to be manufactured by the Billy Baldwin Studio. He retired in 1973. Baldwin wrote several books over his career including Billy Baldwin Decorates (1972), Billy Baldwin Remembers (1974), and Billy Baldwin: An Autobiography (1985, posthumously). He was also featured in books by others, such as Legendary Decorat Baldwin photographed in his New York City apartment in the 1970s. Billy Baldwin had the unusual distinction of being the first man to break the glass ceiling of interior decoration, which before WWII was ruled by a coterie of ladies. The look he championed in the mid-century was entirely American: classical in foundation, but modern in spirit, free of ostentation and unconcerned with trends. “Be faithful to your own taste,” he used to tell clients, “because nothing you really like is ever out of style.” Diana Vreeland requested that Baldwin to transform her drawing room into a “garden in hell.” Baldwin found the perfect blood-red chintz at John Fowler. By the 1960s, just about every American taste-making blue blood was his client, including Jackie Onassis, Pamela Harriman, Nan Kempner, Bunny Mellon and Babe Paley. If you ever wondered who was responsible for Diana Vreeland’s unforgettable “garden in hell” crimson drawing room, it was Billy B, as his friends called him. “I always say I love color better than people,” he once remarked. He also loved cotton, calling it “his life,” detested damask and satin, and claimed to have “made a lady out of wicker.” His quips were legendary. Baldwin himself had patrician roots. William Williar Baldwin, Jr. was born to an old Baltimore family in 1903. He grew up in a family manse designed by Charles A. Platt, a leader of the American Renaissance movement, who much influenced his thinking and style. As he would later observe: “We can recognize and give credit where credit is due to the debt of taste we owe Europe, but we have taste too — in fact we’re a whole empire of taste. That is my flag, and I love to wear it.” Baldwin created this patterned black-and-white textile, Arbre de Matisse Reverse, to match his client’s Matisse, above. That said, Baldwin drew inspiration from the Frenchmen Jean-Michel Frank, whom he called “the last genius of French furniture,” and Henri Matisse, whose work he firs Nantucket's Profound Influence on the Life and Career of Decorator Billy Baldwin
Billy Baldwin (decorator)
Personal life
Professional life