New-York tribune., 1911-11-05
Vour Daughters Vocation.
Plenty of Work and Large Monetary Rewards
Await the Expert Interior Decorator
BY Mary Marshall.

the names and locations of wallpaper
stores. furniture stores, etc.
Now as 20 the expense Of the course or
study. tuition in one of the big art schools
usually ranges from one hundred dollars
year 10 one hundred and fifty. There are
also in some Of the cities branches Of the
Young Womcn's Christian Association
where excellent training for interior deco
rators is offered 10 women who are known
to be STUDYING for sef-support. Here the
rate Of tuition is very much lower, fifty
dollars year being sometimes adequate
to cover a fairly full course.
Through the aid of scholarships in many
of the schools and through possible sales
of designs made during her course stu
dent can often reduce her expenses. Young
women in one of the big New York schools
not infreouently go out two by two with
designs they have made TO fabric, furniture
and wallpaper manufacturers, and some
times. after an afternoons tramp, succeed
in making a sale. one young woman
few months before Christmas sold num-
Der of designs for Christmas boXes-boxes
for holding suspenders, by the way-for
thirty dollars a design, thereby earning
enough to pay her next terms tuition.
The possibilities OF employment for the
trained interior decorator are many. She
can open a small shop of her own in ar
tistic household furnishings-although this
requires capital and wide acquaintance;
she can design interiors for the stage; she
can accept a position as teacher; she
! can be free lance and depend on occa-
sional sales Of designs and articles on in
| 4, che 90 a
one Of the big department stores as buyer
Of artistic furnishings, or she can earn a
living I'm an architects Office designing the
interiors OF the houses he plans.
The most precarous of all these ways Of
earning "A living at interior decoration is
that Of free lance, although the really
/ gifted woman may. if circumstances are
/ favorable earn as much as 5000 or 5000
a year and be more Independent than in
any other way. The teacher Of interior
! decoration usually begins at about 500
year and seldom rises TO much more than
/ 81. 200 The woman who keeps her own
shop. the woman who designs stage set
tings and the woman who works for the
department stores gets sometimes as much
as 5000 or $4,000 year.
One young woman decided, after she had
completed her training. to 80 to work in
an interior decorators shop. She was will
ing 10 offer her services for a few weeks
for nothing She went about getting a
position in a businesslikc way. Having
borrowed a classified telephone directory
She proceeded to copy the names Of all the
interior decorators in the city and then,
putting her pride in her. pocket she went
out 10 ask for work. II was a bad season
to take on new help. for one thing, but,
after walking eight hours in various parts
Of the city and visiting twenty shops, she
cot place. Here they accepted her ser
vices-from half past in the morning TIL
at night-wlthout pay.
Tor the first week the young decorator
did nothing but tend shop and answer the
telephone. One day the following week she
was told 10 go n few blocks away TO an
EMMY loft that was 10 be converted into a
fashionable lingerie shop and bring back Il
plan for decorating II by the next morn
ing She worked till y O'Clock that night
and tbe next morning she came to her
empjoyer with a few rough sketches, sam
niles of goods and wall papers and illus
trations of furniture clipped from manu-
facturers' catalogues. The employer was
satisfied and the report was handed over
to skilled artist, who made the drawings
to be submitted TO the customer
The next day the young designer was