Sister Parish

Book excerpt: This “fast-moving, entertaining biography” of the woman behind the Parish Hadley interior design firm is “like eavesdropping on a lively society lunch” (Publishers Weekly). A New York Times Notable Book Sister—as she was called by family and friends—was born Dorothy May Kinnicutt into a patrician New York family in 1910, and spent her privileged early life at the right schools, yacht clubs, and coming-out parties. Compelled to work during the lean years of the Depression, she combined her innate design ability with her upper-echelon social connections to create an extraordinarily successful interior decorating business. The Parish-Hadley firm’s list of clients reads like an American Who’s Who, including Astors, Paleys, Rockefellers, and Whitneys—and she helped Jacqueline Kennedy transform the White House from a fusty hodge-podge into a historically authentic symbol of American elegance. Cozy, airy, colorful but understated, her style came to be known as “American country,” and its influence continues to this day. Compiled by her daughter and granddaughter from Sister’s own unpublished memoirs, as well as from hundreds of interviews with family members, friends, staff, world-renowned interior designers (Mark Hampton, Mario Buatta, Keith Irvine, Bunny Williams, and her longtime partner Albert Hadley, among many others), and clients including Annette de la Renta, Glenn Bernbaum, and Mrs. Thomas Watson, Sister Parish takes us into the houses—and lives—of some of the most fascinating and famous people of this inimitable woman’s time. Fully updated, the revised edition features a new foreword by Albert Hadley and an appreciation by Bunny Williams, who began her career at Parish-Hadley. “Selections from Mrs. Parish’s own rather wonderful, often moving, reminiscences, intercut with observations from her family, employees, clients and friends.” —The New York Times Book Review “Sister’s delightfully self-deprecating humor illuminates the biography throughout.” —Kirkus Reviews Includes photographs