Adorable Story #75: Chessy Rayner

An iconic interior designer who moved with the times

“Sometimes women who aren’t what you’d call very pretty develop great style, and Chessy had style.”

— Kenneth Jay Lane, jewelry designer

Chessy Rayner in her living room, October 1st, 1976 — Photo © by Horst P. Horst

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Early years

Chesbrough (Chessy) Lewis Hall was born on September 25th, 1931, in Perrysburg, Ohio: she was the only daughter of Richard Hall and Chesbrough Lewis, a society beauty.

After attending Briarcliff Junior College, she moved to New York City.

Personal Life and Relationships

In 1952, Chessy married William (“Billy”) P. Rayner at St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church, in Manhattan. William was a stockbroker who would later become an executive at Conde Nast Publications for 30 years, and then an accomplished watercolorist and travel writer.

Chessy and Billy Rayner holidaying in the 50s — Photographer unknown

The Rayners were celebrated in Vogue as “a fast-paced, superattractive couple,” and rare was the week when Chessy did not appear in Women’s Wear Daily.

Career in Fashion and Work as Interior Design

Her rise to fame started in 1963, after her mother remarried, becoming the wife of Iva S. V. Patcevitch, the chairman of Conde Nast.

For the rest of her life, Chessy was one of the best-dressed and most-photographed fixtures of the Manhattan social scene.

Chessy went to work for Ladies Home Journal, then she moved to Glamour, and then became a fashion editor at Vogue from 1956 to 1964.

By the mid-1960’s, William Rayner said, “The bubble was off the champagne.”

Bored with the business of fashion and struggling under her dictatorial boss — Diana Vreeland — Chessy left Vogue and went in search of what William Rayner called “less ephemeral, more creative” work.

She and Mica Ertegun — the wife of Ahmet Ertegun, then president of Atlantic Records — initially toyed with opening a restaurant.