“Mellen takes me on a tour of her house, which is, in a way, a tour through her life. We begin downstairs. The powder room is hung floor to ceiling with YSL’s LOVE posters, which the designer sent each New Year. “Oh, how I loved Yves Saint Laurent,” she says. “He was so fragile.”
We move on to the living room, which is dotted with photos of her children and grandchildren, and punctuated by riotous textiles and cheerful, plush lounging sofas and chairs. “I’m a big needlepointer,” Mellen says, gesturing toward the wild rug at the heart of the room, based on the dress tartans of the British Isles. “I did it square by square on airplanes and on shoots, waiting for hair and makeup. You see that piece? It took the time of Way Bandy doing one eyebrow.” She tells how in the 1950s, her mother, Leslie Smith Allen, won first prize in the world needlepoint exhibition (“Queen Mary got honorable mention”). She points out a divine photograph of her mother, smiling in the tropics and wearing an exuberant floral print. “I miss her, and I will always miss her. She was my mother and my best friend.” Her style and innovation proved inspiration for her daughter. “Here she is,” says Mellen, “a woman 250 pounds, and when we were in the city, New York or Paris, she might wear navy blue or black, but otherwise she wore brilliant colors. She went to Chanel and had a pair of pajamas made, and she took them to be copied in the West Indies in fabulous fabrics from Scalamandré and others.” “
POLLY MELLEN’S CONNECTICUT HOME, AS PHOTOGRAPHED ERIC BOMAN FOR VOGUE, APRIL 2009; VIA STYLE.COM
