Frances Elkins: Visionary American Designer

Frances Elkins (1888-1953) was admired for her classic, erudite and multi-dimensional designs. Ahead of her time, she became a successful decorator who, by the early 1930s, had reached the pinnacle of her profession and was considered to be Wolfe's only rival.

Frances Elkins brought an international perspective and architectural sensibility to her work. Her social circle included interior designer Jean-Michel Frank, fashion designer Coco Chanel, aesthete Charles de Beistegui, patron Misia Sert and painter Salvador Dali. For her clients, she brought modern European chic and a blend of the best of American, English, French, Asian and Mexican traditions. A talented designer of furniture and fabrics, as well as an interior decorator, she collaborated with many prominent people.

Featuring previously unpublished material, this book includes more than sixty interiors that illustrate Frances Elkins's exceptional sense of colour and gift for blending eras and styles - from her early work on the Monterey Peninsula, to the homes she designed with her brother in Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, to commissions for such iconic hotels as the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, the homes of film star Edward G. Robinson, bank heiress Celia Tobin Clark and advertising legend Albert Lasker.