11 Legendary Interior Design Stars Who Have Tragically Passed Away

Suzanne Rheinstein

Suzanne Rhenstein, a self-proclaimed champion of the limited palette, was known for her elegant yet comforting take on classic interiors. The Louisiana-born, Los Angeles–based talent ran an eponymous design firm and beloved shop, Hollyhock, for decades. In 2023, she passed away at the age of 77 after a battle with cancer.

Mario Buatta

Known as the “Prince of Chintz,” Mario Buatta was beloved by maximalists for his fearless use of tassels, pattern, ribbons, and texture. “A house should grow in the same way that an artist’s painting grows,” Buatta once said. “A few dabs today, a few more tomorrow, and the rest when the spirit moves you.” In 2018, he passed away due to complications of pneumonia at the age of 82.

Kimberly Ward

Kimberly Ward, founder of the Black Interior Designers Network, began her career taking on clients from NFL teams—often designing more than one home for many of them. In 2008, she joined the blog Pink Eggshell where she started the Top 20 African American Interior Designers list. She went on to found the Black Interior Designers Network in 2011 to celebrate and support black designers. “Where others saw limitations, she concentrated on possibilities,” her friend and author Ronda Racha Penrice wrote in Atlanta Magazine. In 2017, Ward died of cancer. She was 43.

Albert Hadley

With contemporary flair informed by traditional style, Albert Hadley heavily influenced American design as cofounder of the legendary Parish-Hadley design firm, where he worked from 1962 to 1999, and his own namesake firm thereafter. He was never afraid to show restraint as he created a rich body of work for high profile clients including the Astor and Getty families, former vice president Albert Gore, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and others. He died of cancer in 2012. He was 91.

Mark Hampton

While influenced by English country style and classic interiors, Mark Hampton’s work always felt thoroughly American while reflecting the personal style of his clients. In fact, that impressive client list included no fewer than three U.S. presidents, as well as Brooke Astor and Estée Lauder. In 1998, he died of cardiac arrest brought on by liver cancer. He was 58.

Sister Parish

Dorothy “Sister” Parish, the other half of the Parish-Hadley design firm, is perhaps best known for her work on the White House for the Kennedys, which she completed alongside First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Throughout the designer’s career, she crafted laid-back, airy interiors that exuded an understated elegance. The color palettes, accents (wicker, needlepoint, ticking stripes), and timeless sensibility endure today. After a lengthy illness, she died in 1994 at the age of 84.

Billy Baldwin

Billy Baldwin, one of the most influential American tastemakers, was devoted to blending high style with comfort. He famously decorated neat, polished interiors with eclectic furnishings for socialites and creatives, from Cole Porter to Diana Vreeland. He died of a heart ailment, at the age of 80, in 1983.

Dorothy Draper

Dorothy Draper founded what was arguably the very first interior design business in 1925. Her signature Regency-influenced style with bold use of color, striped walls, and black-and-white checkered floors extended beyond residential interiors. Her work is on display in some of the country’s most iconic hotels, including the Carlyle in New York City and the Greenbrier in West Virginia (for which she earned $4.2 million, the highest fee ever paid to a decorator). After suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, she died in 1969 at the age of 79.

Elsie de Wolfe

In the early 1900s, Elsie de Wolfe was the first creative to be commissioned for decorating a home—technically making her the first American professional interior designer, before the term was ever used. She made a name for herself by fashioning elegant spaces with bright, feminine color schemes and French-inspired furniture—garnering many notable clients in the process, from Oscar Wilde to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She died at age 84 in 1950.

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