Inside Lee Radziwill's Upper East Side Apartment

The Upper East side home of the late fashion icon and socialite Lee Radziwill has hit the market for $5.7 million. Prior to her death in February 2019, Radziwill had spent more than 30 years in her spacious New York City apartment, which served as a primary residence in addition to her homes in London and Paris. Radziwill, who was known as the sister of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, made a name for herself in fashion, interior design, and public relations, where she worked as an executive for a major fashion house.

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Radziwill’s Manhattan living room features a pair of sofas and an ottoman custom made by De Angelis, a 19th-century rug, a Louis XVI chair by G. Jacob, and an overmantel mirror that once belonged to British decorator Felix Harbord.

Despite living an immensely private life, Radziwill shared small glimpses into her world through her two books—Lee and Happy Times—which included photos and anecdotes about her friends and adventures. Her apartment was also featured in ELLE Decor in 2009, opening the doors to one of the most intimate parts of her life: the space in which she lives. Here is an excerpt from her 2009 interview with ELLE Decor, written by Mitchell Owens:

Radziwill, who had her own interior design firm in the 1970s, adopted the material for the walls and furniture of her library in Paris and her bedroom in New York. Indian art is also a leitmotif, the most splendid being oversize watercolors of fruit and flowers given to her by the present Duke of Beaufort. In the Manhattan entrance hall hang moody églomisé paintings of turbaned nobles and sloe-eyed ladies, their presence an echo of the well-publicized tour of India and Pakistan that Radziwill and her sister, Jacqueline Kennedy, took in 1962.“That trip made an enormous impression on me,”she says, recalling riding an elephant at the palace of the maharajah of Jaipur and being garlanded with necklaces of brilliant orange marigolds.

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Radziwill designed the sitting room’s daybed, which is covered in a vintage Rubelli stripe also used for the walls and curtains.

With friends including Truman Capote and Giorgio Armani, Radziwill’s former open concept space was a hub for entertaining. The 72nd street apartment, located on the 15th floor of a 1920s prewar co-op building, is light-filled and covered in pattern—a reflection of the icon’s vibrant spirit and quintessential sense of style.

The excerpt continues:

In 1959, she married Stanislas Radziwill, a British real-estate investor, and moved to a house near Buckingham Palace. “Stas loved beautiful objects, and I had a good eye,” she notes. “It was a good combination.” Soon she coaxed Renzo Mongiardino, then known primarily as a set designer, into her charmed world. “I think I got him at his very best,” Radziwill says, “before he started decorating for great art collectors like Stavros Niarchos and Baron Thyssen and making houses that looked like museums."

With north and south facing windows, the apartment is flooded with light and includes four and a half bathrooms and three large bedrooms, which are separate from the entertaining spaces. The home also has its own private elevator, with unique amenities including a wood-burning fireplace, wide plank floors, crown moldings, and ample natural light.

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A Swedish settee, an English églomisé lamp, and a framed watercolor by Radziwill rest atop an Art Deco chest of drawers.

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The library, walls, curtains, and a sofa are in a Le Manach fabric; the painting is Sir Edward Landseer’s study for Hector, Nero and Dash With the Parrot, Lory.

The listing is held by Leslie Coleman and Mary Rutherfurd of Brown Harris Stevens.

From: ELLE Decor US