Chesbrough Lewis Rayner (''née'' Hall; September 25, 1931 – February 26, 1998) was an American interior decorator, socialite, fashion editor and writer.

Early life and family

Rayner was born on September 25, 1931, in Perrysburg,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, to Richard Brown West Hall (1897–1959) and Chesbrough Lewis (1912–2004). She attended

finishing school A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects the fact that it follows ordinary school and is intended to complete a young woman's ...

and

Briarcliff College Briarcliff College was a women's college in Briarcliff Manor, New York. The school was founded as Mrs. Dow's School for Girls in 1903 at the Briarcliff Lodge. After Walter W. Law donated land and a building for the college, it operated at ...

. After her parents' divorce, her mother remarried Iva S. V. Patcevitch, the chairman of

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...

. In 1952, she married William P. Rayner, a stockbroker and later Condé Nast executive, at St. Thomas Church on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

. They had no children and divorced in 1989.

Career

After marriage, she worked for ''

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th centur ...

'', '' Glamour'' and finally, ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

'' where she was fashion editor 1956 to 1964. In 1967, she co-founded the interior design firm MAC II with

Mica Ertegun Mica Ertegun was a Romanian-American interior designer and philanthropist. Early life Mica Ertegun, born Ioana Maria Banu on October 21, 1926, in Bucharest, Romania, was the only child of Natalia Gologan and Gheorghe Banu, a prominent figure in ...

(MAC being an acronym of "Mica and Chessy"). The firm focused on residential and commercial projects. MAC II's residential clients included

Kenneth Noland Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s as a minimal ...

Bill Blass William Ralph Blass (June 22, 1922 – June 12, 2002) was an American fashion designer. He was the recipient of many fashion awards, including seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology's Lifetime Achievement Award (1999). Ear ...

and

Arnold Scaasi Arnold Isaacs (May 8, 1930 – August 3, 2015), known as Arnold Scaasi, was a Canadian fashion designer who created gowns for First Ladies Mamie Eisenhower, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush, in addition to such notable personaliti ...

. Their commercial clients included Trade Development Bank,

Banco Safra Banco Safra is a Brazilian financial services company headquartered in São Paulo. It is the seventh largest banking institution in Brazil and the nineteenth largest in Latin America. It provides services in investment banking, private banking, ...

and the

Carlyle Hotel The Carlyle Hotel is a luxury apartment hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1930, the Art Deco hotel was designed by Sylvan Bien and Harry M. Prince, with interiors by Dorothy Draper. It was named after the S ...

. In 1997, Rayner published ''New York: Trends and Tradition'', a book highlighting 27 interiors in New York City. She was described as "one of the best-dressed and most-photographed fixtures of the Manhattan social scene."

Illness and death

Rayner died of lung cancer at

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in Manhattan in New York City. MSKCC is one of 72 National Cancer Institute– designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Its main campus is ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on February 26, 1998, at the age of 66. Her funeral, held on March 3, 1998, at St. Thomas Church, was "overflowing." In 2011, 750 items from her estate were sold on

One Kings Lane One Kings Lane is an American luxury home decor business that operates a furniture and home accessories sales website. It was founded by Alison Pincus and Susan Feldman in March 2009. The company was valued at $912 million in 2014. The company has ...

Bibliography

* Rayner, William and Chesbrough. ''French Cooking By The Clock''. New York City:

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publi ...

, 1965. . * Rayner, Chessy; Schezen, Roberto. ''New York: Trends and Traditions''. New York City:

Monacelli Press Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional off ...

, 1997. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayner, Chessy 1931 births 1998 deaths People from Perrysburg, Ohio Socialites from New York City Fashion editors American socialites American interior designers American women interior designers American magazine editors American women magazine editors 20th-century American women writers Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state)