Lee Radziwill passed on February 15, symbolizing the end of an era. She was an American socialite, princess, public relations executive, interior decorator, actress, and one of the greatest style icons in history. She is also the younger sister of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. In a 1961 article, The New York Times described Radziwill as “the epitome of all that is considered chic, and therefore elegantly understated, in the world today.” Over the course of five decades, Lee lived in many homes including a townhouse near Buckingham Palace, an English country manor house in Buckinghamshire, a Fifth Avenue penthouse, a Park Avenue duplex and a Paris apartment near the Bois de Boulogne. After commissioning Renzo Mongiardino to decorate her homes in England, Lee decorated her own subsequent homes and briefly pursued a career in interior design. From home to home, Lee changed her decor many times, but she reused the things she loved most such as floral prints, tiger velvet upholstery, Bessarabian rugs, antiques, and art including the 19th-century Anglo-Indian botanical artworks that had been given to her by David Somerset. (She later gave the botanicals to Tory Burch.)
“You see, my design philosophy is essentially European,” she says. “I abhor the American idea of starting with a tabula rasa every few years and getting rid of everything. When I buy something, I do so with the intention of keeping it forever. I’m constantly falling in love with objects, and they follow me around the world,” Lee said. Today we will tour six of Lee’s exquisite and timeless former homes:
- 1966 (Vogue): The London home Lee shared with husband Stanisław Radziwiłł, decorated by Renzo Mongiardino.
- 1971 (Vogue): The Radziwill’s Buckinghamshire estate, Turville Grange, also decorated by Renzo Mongiardino.
- 1975 (Architectural Digest): Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue where she moved after her divorce
- 1982 (Architectural Digest): Lee’s Park Avenue apartment
- 2009 (Elle Decor): Lee’s Manhattan apartment on East 72nd Street
- 2013 (T Magazine): Lee’s Paris apartment (sold in 2017)
LONDON
Radziwill with daughter Anna Christina in the Turquerie room of their London home. Photographed by Cecil Beaton, Vogue, December 1966
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
“I wanted a house of flowers, so that one wouldn’t notice the weather if it were dull.” – Lee Radziwill
Radziwill in her Buckinghamshire estate circa 1971. Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, July 1971
Canaries fill an elaborate cage in the living room of Radziwill’s English estate. Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue
The entrance hall of the Buckinghamshire, England, estate Radziwill shared with her then-husband, Stanislaw, circa 1971. The silk shantung wallpaper covering the walls is hung with 18th-century English framed watercolor prints. Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, July 1971
Vogue, July 1971
Radziwill’s pink bedroom in her England estate, complete with a linen canopy bed and silk taffeta quilt. Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, July 1971
A quiet terrace off of the Turville Grange home of Lee and Stanislaw Radziwill. Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, July 1971
FIFTH AVENUE
“If I really can be said to have a personal style, I think it is reflected in my taste for the exotic and the unexpected. I like to create rooms which are essentially traditional —and then add touches of the bizarre and the delicious.” – Lee Radziwill
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
Town & Country (1976)
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on Fifth Avenue via Architectural Digest, July/August 1975
PARK AVENUE
Lee’s Park Avenue apartment featured on the January 1982 cover of Architectural Digest (image via Cote de Texas)
Lee’s Park Avenue apartment featured on the January 1982 cover of Architectural Digest (image via Cote de Texas)
Lee’s Park Avenue apartment featured on the January 1982 cover of Architectural Digest (image via Cote de Texas)
Lee’s Park Avenue apartment featured on the January 1982 cover of Architectural Digest (image via Cote de Texas)
Lee’s Park Avenue apartment featured on the January 1982 cover of Architectural Digest (image via Cote de Texas)
Lee’s Park Avenue apartment featured on the January 1982 cover of Architectural Digest
EAST 72ND STREET
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on East 72nd Street via Elle Decor, 2009
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on East 72nd Street via Elle Decor, 2009
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on East 72nd Street via Elle Decor, 2009
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on East 72nd Street via Elle Decor, 2009
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on East 72nd Street via Elle Decor, 2009
Lee’s Manhattan apartment on East 72nd Street via Elle Decor, 2009
PARIS
Lee’s Paris apartment, photographed by François Halard for T Magazine, 2013
Lee’s Paris apartment, photographed by François Halard for T Magazine, 2013
Lee’s Paris apartment, photographed by François Halard for T Magazine, 2013
Paris apartment Elle Decor, 2009
Lee’s Paris apartment, photographed by François Halard for T Magazine, 2013
The cover of Nicholas Foulkes’s ‘‘Bals: Legendary Costume Balls of the Twentieth Century,’’ showing Radziwill getting ready for Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball in 1966. Photograph by François Halard for T Magazine
“A house should be a scrapbook,” Lee once said. “Even if not every memory is a particularly pleasant one.” To learn more about Lee Radziwill, I recommend the books Lee and Happy Times.
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I’ve always thought Lee was the more interesting and stylish sister, probably because she had the freedom to express herself more than Jackie without public scrutiny. These rooms are divine- like everyone else I covet those prints that followed her everywhere! Thank you for such a wonderful collection of photos – so inspirational and can teach us all lessons!
That tiger striped velvet sofa in the purple room was given to Carole Radziwill. Unfortunately, the wonderful silk velvet was showing signs of age, so Carole recovered it in a lesser fabric. A pity.
Wonderful post Andrea! She certainly seems to have been an interesting, quietly resilient woman – who just happened to have wonderful taste. And such personal dignity! Thank you for sharing! Xoxo
I’ve always thought of her as having had a very empty, tragic life. I think Janet Auchincloss, mother to Lee and Jacqueline, ingrained in her daughters that they must “marry well”. Well, from a financial and social standpoint, they did, but neither had good marriages with love and companionship.
Lee was the prettier of the two women, and her fashion style was impeccable. Not a fan of her interior design except for her Paris apartment – that is stunning – and those fabulous botanicals. We see prints used far too little these days, and far better to have an amazing collection of outstanding prints, than a collection of mediocre oil paintings.
Her death means truly the end of an era.
Her death is a sad reminder of how much the world has changed., a world in wich bad taste and vulgarity has permeated every aspect of our culture.. People like Lee Radziwill represented what is best in our culture , in clothing , decorating and beautiful manners . RIP