The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-15
DiSreSpect for Pian0 Set
 Pitch Of Decorators Career
Stuffy PompOSity
 BOreS Versatile Modernist Expert
BY MARIAN YOUNG
NEA Service staF Correspondent

l NSW IOIh-4 LIGEC WAS @ 0AB nb1~ hogany plano in the California wo- mems club rooms that Eleanor Le- maire was decorating. Since, to her mind, 1t stuck out with the aesthet- ic banality of a sore thumb, she painted the piano ivory.color. In next to no time, that same piano was playing quick march, which was Miss Lemaire's accompaniment to the exit.
 Today Miss Lemaire is painting much bigger things than pianos, and designing much more than club roosnl. She designs so many different things that she simply can't figure out a title to define her work, except that she deviseS aynthing the. customer wants, and she's the only woman in this field.
 She works in the smal back room of a taStefully decorated skyscraper office. About her are scores of models. Models of tiny bottle labels, an illuminated es- calator, dozens of interiors of houses and apartments, toys for children, vanity cases, pieces of furniture of every type iinagin- able from pianos to book ends, gold fish bowls, show cases, book covers, the interior of The Schol for Fashion Careers in Rockefel- Ter Plaza, and quantities of other objects-all made by Eleanor Le- maire.
 Travels by Express Planes
 The attractive, auburn haired designers customers have includ- cd the heads of huge department stores and owners of tiny country houses. The more difficult the problem, the more anxious Miss Lemaire Is to tackle it. She'll go anywhere--provided she can get there on an express airplane. Her business, started in 1890 when she arrived from California quite oh- livious to existing conditions here right after the stock market crash, has assumed such gigantic pro- portions that she no longer can afford to spend time on trains, buses, boats, or even airplanes which make local stops.
 T got my first designing job when was 15," Miss Lemaire said, in 8 perfectly modulated, soft voice which she never raises no matter how busy or pressed for time she happens to be.
 Mother belonged to a women's club in Berkeley, and the mem- bers wanted something done to make the music room more at- tractive. I pleaded to be allowed to try my hand at bringing cheer to that gloomy room, and was | Going Too Far
 Everything went along fine. picked yellow and white draper les, ordered honey -colored slip covers, had the floors refinished The room began to look sunny and bright. The clubwomen were pleased to death. Then painted the piano pale ivory. Needless to say, in the face of such blatant disrepect for a piano, was fired"
 A few years after the tragedy II, the women's club, Miss Lemaire came to New York, studied at an art school, later went abroad tc continue her studies. Her first com mercal job was in a wholesale estab- lishrnent where she styled packages labels, ribbon, later was put in com plete charge of the packaging de- partment.
 Then she got position as stylist of the home furnishings section il1 one of the largest department stores in California. Years later, she was called from her New York office and asked to rebuild completely the in- side of that store.
 She's Color Enthusiast
 Miss Lemaire's particular interest lies in the use of color. She be. lieves that almost anything can b. done, any effect achieved, with the right tones.
 When see a wall that ought not to be in a house, but which, fol one reason or another, cannot bt torn away, usually can see a way to wipe 1t away with color. Ugl, lines Of room, caused by windows doors or bookcases in unever heights, can be corrected by the sim. pie expedient of the right coloreC border, painted on correctly. Color too, can break a monotono,is, tot even effect, make rooms seem larger smaller, brighter, darker, in fact, dt practically everything. Only & few weeks ago we made one vast room Il 8 department store look like four lit. tie shops-shnply by applying thu right paint"
 Recently elected vice-president O the Fashion Group, Miss Lemairt now is an invited lecturer at tht Metropolitan Museum of Art on thu subject of modernists' interpreta tor and use of color in design and deco. ration.