Elsie de Wolfe (20 December 1865 – 12 July 1950), who later became Lady Mendl on her 1926 marriage to Sir Charles Mendl, the British attaché to Paris, was described by The New York Times in 1935 as "Prominent in Paris society." Born in New York, she became one of the most influential interior designers of the early twentieth century, credited with transforming American domestic decoration away from the heavy Victorian aesthetic of her era.
She had deep roots in Paris from early in her adult life. In 1903 she bought the eighteenth-century Villa Trianon at Versailles, originally built by Louis XV, and renovated it into a celebrated venue for entertaining. It became her base for several decades and a regular gathering point for European and American society.
The First Triple Bracelet
Her place in Cartier's history is anchored by a specific purchase: in 1925, Elsie de Wolfe bought the first triple bracelet that Louis Cartier had created. The Trinity ring had been made in 1924, and the bracelet version followed soon after. American Vogue covered the Trinity pieces the same year, photographing a model wearing the matching bracelets and ring and describing them as "amazingly chic" and "very moderate in price." The first buyer of the triple bracelet was de Wolfe, who was well placed to bring the new design to the attention of the Paris and London social circles she moved in.
In 1935, by then in her seventies and with white hair she had dyed a pale blue to match a newly acquired aquamarine and diamond tiara from Cartier, she was still buying. The tiara was a geometric piece in the mode Louis was then developing as he explored semiprecious stones and new design directions after the Depression had shifted what clients wanted.
The 1939 Circus Ball
In the summer of 1939, de Wolfe wore a Cartier diamond and aquamarine tiara to her celebrated circus ball at Villa Trianon. The party, held on 1 July with seven hundred guests, became in retrospect one of the last great prewar Parisian social events. Two months later, Germany invaded Poland. The full account is in The Cartiers, ch. 8.
When the occupation of France became real, Elsie de Wolfe was among the wealthier international set who had already left for America.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 6 ("Stones Paris: Early 1920s"), ch. 8 ("Diamonds and Depression: The 1930s"), and ch. 9 ("The World at War, 1939–1944")
- Jane Smith, Elsie de Wolfe: A Life in the High Style (Atheneum, 1982), cited in The Cartiers
- Wikipedia: Elsie de Wolfe
