George Stacey and the Creation of American Chic

The history of interior design is punctuated by a few legends-Billy Baldwin, Sister Parish-and should include trailblazing decorator George Stacey. When George Stacey shot to prominence in the 1930s with projects for socialite Frances Cheney and style priestess Diana Vreeland, the audacity of his work caught the eye of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Town and Country, and House & Garden. An appealing nonchalance and irreverence, combined with erudition, a flair for color, and an innate grasp of balance, scale, and proportion, produced rooms that were surprising as well as sophisticated. Balancing modern aesthetics and modern living with a lifelong passion for French classicism ensured that Stacey designs were both of the moment and enduring. For the next forty years, he deftly produced a string of stylish rooms for his stylish clientele. While the ground rules of Stacey's approach remained constant, he captured the nuances of mood and culture of an exceptionally dynamic era and established a design vocabulary that defined American chic in the American century and that endures, glitteringly, to this day.