Linda Jane Holden

In the early 1960s a reawakening was happening on Nantucket, a destination rich in history and seafaring lore. Into this world stepped Andy Oates and Bill Euler, one skilled in the fine arts and the other in the art of hospitality. In 1968 they opened Nantucket Looms, which specialized in needlepoint, crewelwork, handwoven fabrics, and local artwork. It is here that they forged their Nantucket cottage style aesthetic. This modest homespun charm held great appeal to such twentieth-century tastemakers as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Bunny Mellon, interior designer Billy Baldwin, Hubert de Givenchy, and Chanel Inc. Nantucket Looms launched an interior design studio in 1998 to much acclaim. The featured recent home interiors have a sophisticated, comfortable ambience that exemplifies the company s style. They include such elements as wooden planked floors, natural fiber rugs, muted color palettes in shades of blues, grays, greens, and whites, timeless furnishings, and handwoven textiles, and are adorned with local artwork, lightship baskets, and carved bird decoys. This modern approach to homespun living can be applied everywhere; it is a style now embraced in the work of many leading interior designers.

This fascinating story of an American style icon Bunny Mellon, an art collector and philanthropist with her husband Paul Mellon, reveals how her style developed and how she became a self-confident, hands-on designer of homes and gardens in a privileged world. Bunny Mellon Style is the intimate story of one of the most unintentionally influential women of twentieth-century design. Learn how her style developed, take a look inside the family homes she designed, get the flavor of her collaborations with French designers of fashion and jewelry, and begin to understand her vast and lasting influence on the world of design. Original research by the authors uncovered Mrs. Mellon's personal writings and correspondences. They talked with people who knew her, who were employed by her, and who spent time in her home and gardens. From published works, they extracted information about personal relationships between Mrs. Mellon and Jackie Kennedy Onasis, designers Billy Baldwin, Balenciaga, Givenchy, and more. Blending stories and accounts from such a wide variety of viewpoints results in a unique perspective of this extraordinary woman who moved in the upper echelon of society but preferred not to be noticed in the public eye. This book reveals Mrs. Mellon's style in furnishings, art, and collectibles; her dietary habits and penchant for picnics; her personal investment in designing every aspect of her homes, secondary buildings, and gardens. Come away with the highest regard for a woman who was disciplined and self-taught, who loved learning from historic texts, who was accomplished in myriad ways, and who was as utterly unpretentious and down-to-earth. A foreword by her grandson Thomas Lloyd is both surprising and warm. An abundance of imagery is used, including professional and archival photography, watercolors, whimsical hand drawings, and sketches.

Throughout her long and storied life, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon’s greatest passion was garden design. She and her husband Paul Mellon, one of the wealthiest men in America, maintained homes in New York, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Antigua, and Upperville, Virginia, and she designed the gardens at all of them. She also designed gardens for some of her dearest friends, including the Rose Garden and the East Garden at the White House, at the request of President Kennedy, and the gardens at both the Paris home and the château of couturier Hubert de Givenchy. All of these gardens are featured in The Gardens of Bunny Mellon, illustrated with Mellon’s own garden plans, sketches, and watercolors, as well as with archival photographs and specially commissioned photographs of Oak Spring, the Mellon estate in Upperville. Author Linda Holden’s text is based on extensive interviews with Mellon before her death in 2014.