A new book reframes interior design history through a feminist lens

It’s a strange and frustrating divide that persists to this day: interior design – a largely female-dominated field – is often perceived as frivolous, decorative and non-essential, while architecture and construction – still coded male – are aligned with permanence, authority and intellect. In her new book, Making Space: Interior Design by Women, published by Phaidon, Dr Jane Hall sets out to challenge this imbalance, celebrating women’s rich and varied contributions to interiors and underlining why the decoration of interior space is as significant as its structure. Hall, a founding member of the Turner Prize-winning architecture collective Assemble (which also has a new book out) and author of Breaking Ground and Woman Made, brings to the subject both academic rigour and a longstanding interest in gender and design.

The volume introduces 250 influential figures across 50-plus countries, from established names to unsung and emerging talents, and opens by reframing design history through a feminist lens. Hall begins with the story of Elsie de Wolfe, the world’s first professional interior decorator, who in 1921 famously sued a client for unpaid services. In the courtroom, when asked how she would define her services, she declared, 'I create beauty,' a statement that underscored both the expressive potential of interiors and the struggle to have such work recognised as creative labour rather than mere domestic duty.

From here, Hall traces the evolution of the field: from the emergence of the so-called ‘Great Lady Decorators’ in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Candace Wheeler, Rose Cumming, Betty Joel and, later, Dorothy Draper; to mid-20th-century pioneers who built interior design businesses and brands, including Eleanor McMillen Brown of McMillen Inc, Welsh decorator and textile designer Laura Ashley, and Barbara Hulanicki of Biba; and through to contemporary practitioners such as Tekla Evelina Severin, Sophie Ashby, Alex Dauley and Justina Blakeney.

Over its pages, the book unfolds as part feminist history – showing how interiors can act as sites of expression, identity and resistance – and part global directory of women interior designers. As Hall writes, it is 'a reminder that the interior is never neutral – it is shaped by those who create and occupy it, expanding the possibilities for reimagining the self and Making Space'.

Making Space by Jane Hall is published by Phaidon, £39.95 phaidon.com