"Plenty of Time"

Fifty-two years ago the bright-eyed daughter of a Manhattan doctor took the lead in an amateur theatrical at Tuxedo Park, N. Y.'s Tuxedo Club, first U. S. country club. Inadvertently she did a double back roll when she was supposed to faint on a sofa. Last week at 80, Lady Charles Mendl, born Elsie de Wolfe, withered, bright-eyed Grand Old Woman of Franco-American socialites, was still doing back rolls, handstands and cartwheels in the garden of her Villa Trianon in Versailles to keep "young." And last week her prosperous, 31-year-old Manhattan decorating firm, Elsie de Wolfe, Inc., held its first exhibition of interiors.

Elsie de Wolfe was the first U. S. woman decorator, first to use chintz, first to use fake plaster curtains in the corners of her rooms. With a hard, nimble, worldly mind, no children, a first husband at 70, a matchless acquaintance among the royal, the idle and the rich, she has made a fortune out of selling the U. S. the French version of good taste. From Versailles she still advises her Manhattan staff, now headed by Mrs. Eileen Allen, on every new decorating job, ships French materials and antique mirrors to the U. S. by the ton. Her mark was all over the five completely decorated rooms her staff had furnished last week in Manhattan.

Blue Bedroom was planned "to give the effect of sleeping on a cloud"--a dark blue rug, fading blue walls, light blue ceiling, plenty of mirrors. Bachelor's Bedroom, to "appeal to a bachelor in search of a bedroom," was painfully ugly, notably in an iron bed "amusingly decorated in red and white bed ticking." "Drama" came from a crimson carpet. The firm's explanation of the room's confusion was that it was for "a person who has collected interesting things, from time to time." Georgian Dining Room fell back on the reliable bright turquoise blue and mirrors. Venetian Sitting Room mixed a magnificent pair of Venetian doors, a green Aubusson rug and a modern paned mirror. Modern Drawing Room, in grey, yellow and chartreuse, showed the sure-fire de Wolfe method of using fairly simple and expensive pieces of various periods with some modern lighting, square stuffed chairs, more mirrors and light-colored walls.

The darling of effeminate young men, the envy of dowagers, old Lady Mendl claims to have won the title of the World's Best Dressed Woman at a cost of only $15,000 a year. She dyes her hair green, blue or pink and learned how to swim free-style at past 60. Three years ago she swam to shore when a friend's speedboat caught fire off the Riviera. Said she then: "Ten minutes' work with the fire extinguishers was the only manual labor most of the men had done in their lives." She made an exception in favor of her husband who is attache of the British Embassy in Paris.

Her philosophy: "On a cushion which accompanies me everywhere is my philosophy: 'Never complain. Never explain.' Nothing ages a woman like worry or bad temper. . . . Make-up is an art that every woman must learn for herself. There is one element which must always go into it. Plenty of time."

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