The partnership between Sister Parish and Albert Hadley influenced American design for more than three decades, and the office was a training ground for dozens of designers, who lead the field in their own right today.
The firm was known for the low-keyed handsomeness of their work and for their well-heeled clientele. It included President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy; the philanthropists Brooke Astor and Enid Annenberg Haupt; William S. Paley, the chairman of CBS, and members of the Bronfman, Getty, Mellon, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Whitney clans. Albert Hadley described Sister Parish as a total romantic. "Her work was enormously pretty and feminine with a great sense of style, luxury and comfort," he said. "I suppose mine is a bit more edited and architectural. I'm more of a minimalist than she was." Together they formed what many consider the most iconic interior design firm in America at that time.