I have always resisted calling myself an interior decorator or designer. While I am certainly proud of my BFA in Fashion Design from Parsons and my many years working on Seventh Avenue, the world of interior decor and home furnishings came to me totally by accident. We were all kids working at our first jobs in New York. I had just gotten a gig working for a moderate dress company whose specialty was garden party dresses made out of cabbage rose-printed chintz. This was back

West Hartford, Connecticut, where I grew up, is such a typical New England suburb that movies requiring a typical New England suburb were either made there or at least set there... such as "Promises in the Dark" and "Far From Heaven." It was idyllic- leafy and gentle (genteel and gentile)- although very much a divided town, as towns were then and still sadly are. There was a large Jewish community, of which my family was a proud member, although we lived in a mixed neighborho

Pauline Trigere, the great American fashion designer, told me, “You’re a much better writer than you are a designer!” I should probably have listened to her, but instead took the path of trying to be the next Norman Norell. Obviously, that didn’t happen. I almost became a bonafide journalist at the starting gate. While studying fashion design at Parsons, I made extra money writing articles for a trend spotting industry publication aimed at retailers. Somehow, someway, my writ