Elsie de Wolfe was a pioneering professional interior decorator in the United States, nominal author of the influential 1913 book "The House in Good Taste," and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society. During her married life, the press usually referred to her as Lady Mendl.

She is often credited with inventing the profession of interior decoration, though this is an exaggeration. In the 18th century, interior decoration was the purview of upholsterers and architects , while in the 19th century, the skills of designers such as Candace Wheeler and design firms such as Herter Brothers were well known. De Wolfe did however reap an enormous amount of publicity and doubtless was the field's most famed practitioner in the early 1900s, a period that also saw an increase of interest in interior design in the popular press. Among her clients were Anne Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and Adelaide and Henry Clay Frick . She transformed the design of wealthy homes from the dark Victorian style into designs featuring light, fresh colors and a reliance on 18th-century French furniture and reproductions..