Nancy Lancaster

Nancy Lancaster was a 20thcentury tastemaker and the owner of Sibyl Colefax amp John Fowler, an influential British decorating firm that codified what is known as the English countryhouse look.

She was born Nancy Keene Perkins as the elder daughter of Thomas Moncure Perkins, a Virginia cotton broker, and his wife Elizabeth Langhorne. Her birthplace was Mirador, the estate farm of her maternal grandfather Chiswell Langhorne, in Greenwood, near Charlottesville, Virginia. She was brought up in Richmond, Virginia and New York City. Nancy Lancaster had four maternal aunts, of whom the most notable were Lady Nancy Astor, a British politician, and Irene Gibson, the wife of artist Charles Dana Gibson, who popularized the Gibson Girl. Her cousin Joyce Grenfell was a celebrated British monologuist and actress.

Source: Wikipedia