It’s about giving form to an idea. It’s about taking what’s inside and realizing it in the world. But in order to do that, you have to know things. You have to know history and art. You have to read and be curious. In order to live amid beauty, you have to be intellectually engaged. This has nothing to do with shopping for furniture. Connoisseurship does not necessarily develop from great wealth.
Albert Hadley
Style and Beauty
Albert Hadley is one of the most important American interior designers of the 20th century and is one of only two interior designers whose work is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution. Along with Sister Parish, his partner at Parish-Hadley, he elevated interior design to a true art form. Hadley was renowned for his warmth, sophistication and masterful sense of proportion and scale. While not necessarily having a style distinct unto himself, Hadley personalized interiors to his high society clientele and often started his designs with a deep consideration for the architectural bones of a space, rather than simply “decorating.”
Hadley joined Parish's design firm in 1962, leaving the namesake company he established in 1955 after studying and teaching at Parsons. Parish-Hadley Associates was the preeminent design firm in New York City, furnishing homes for the likes of the Astors, the Gettys and Jackie Onassis, as well as designing for the White House and Gracie Mansion. While Parish was often extravagant, Hadley was far more minimal, function-focused and unpretentious; this tension fueled their enduring, iconic interiors. To Hadley, design was “not about making pretty pictures for magazines,” but “creating a quality of life, a beauty that nourishes the soul.”
Flair is a primitive kind of style. It is innate and cannot be taught.. It can be polished and refined. When a person has flair, a grounding in the principles of design, and self-discipline, that person has the potential of being an outstanding designer. The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live. It is about the realities of what makes for an attractive, civilized, meaningful environment, not about fashion or what's in or what's out.
Albert Hadley
