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.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 19 reviews)

Somewhat disappointed... by Otto J. Rodriguez (Miami, Florida)

3 Stars
September 30, 2008
Although I found the book to be visually interesting...I was disappointed to find that the majority of the photos are in black & white, which greatly reduced the "impact" of the actual rooms being shown. I truly believe that if the original vivid colors were "inserted" (via digital / computer imagery) into the black & white pictures, this would have truly represented the decorator's original vision and consequently made for a much more visually powerful book.

Terrific book by Collector

5 Stars
June 28, 2008
This is a wonderful book, full of excellent photographs and graphics, detailing the history and the flamboyant and highly sophisticated design of Dorothy Draper. The book includes treatment of her furniture, fabric designs, and public relations projects, as well as examples of her most important residential and commercial commissions. A book about great style, and a book with great style.

I wish this book were more pink! by kko (Boston, MA USA)

3 Stars
May 30, 2008
Like other reviewers, I was disappointed in all of the black and white photos. The content is very good but it just needed more color to really show what Draper's style was all about.

Think Pink by Stylemaven

3 Stars
November 29, 2007
This is an interesting book but the items reproduced therein are no so great. The photos of the ballrooms/hotels are great and that's where Draper was at her best - in grand spaces. It's difficult to imagine men living in these highly styled white baroque plaster rooms in more common-sized apartments with dizzy graphic prints and maneating flower motives. Still, if you like that kinda thing, find it on sale. Stylemaven

Fabulous biography, average photographs by S. Annetta (Hong Kong)

3 Stars
November 25, 2007
A sensational look at the life and stratospheric career of the extraordinary Dorothy Draper. Written by her assistant who inherited the company, Carleton Varney has written about Draper's life and career like no-one else could have. Draper had such a unique style that has inspired the likes of Kelly Wearstler to this day. Unfortunately one of her most important design signatures, colour - and lots of it, is not done justice or captured accurately in the mostly black and white photos in this book. This is a great book if you are interested in the life and career of one of America's most important and charismatic decorator's, but if you are hoping for reference for her design and trademark colours then you may be disappointed.

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