An interview by Jackson McCard, Head of Sales for Sister Parish Design, with Susan Crater, CEO of Sister Parish.
You know, when you spend time working with people you like, sometimes you just have to make time to sit down to learn more about their life experiences, especially related to family, friendships and business. Recently, I had the really fun opportunity to sit down and talk with Susan Crater, the founder and CEO of Sister Parish Design, and my boss. I told her I had a few specific questions I wanted to ask her. After sitting down slowly, wondering what I was really up to, Susan said to ask away. This was my chance to dig in and learn more about Susan and her relationship with her grandmother, the revered Mrs. Henry Parish II, affectionately known as "Sister." It went like this . . .
I remember her holding a Mason Pearson hairbrush in her hand coming at me with a lot of authority to brush my hair, and that never ended.
My grandmother would often say imagination is the best trait you can have. She was a master colorist, and comfort and practicality were always at the top of her list. She was a champion of American craft and craftspeople, but she was also an anglophile and would put a canopy bed in any room she could!
Sister and Susan.
Honestly, my biggest memory is living in New York as a young married person. My grandmother had a salon (of sorts). Every Sunday she would have a gathering at her "salon." It included old family friends from New York and Maine, plus people she worked with and people she wanted to know, from Arthur Sulzberger of the New York Times to clients like Betsey Whitney and numerous others. And drinks were flowing. Doug and I would always stay for dinner with her afterward and listen to her jovially dissect the people who were at the gathering. Also, she always called me "pet."
I think that people often mischaracterize her as someone who only liked chintz or an English look, but in fact she loved Guatemalan and Indian fabrics and other artisan-made things that were not confined to an English look. She was very youthful at heart and she and Albert were always looking for anything new.
The yin and yang! She was all about instinct and Albert was all about control.
She was a business woman and entrepreneur, always with an eye to the future. I have modeled my business the same way. I think my daughter, Eliza, feels the same way.
Parish Hadley and Sister Parish, at their headquarters.
I think a very small part of her would be delighted, but at heart she was very humble and didn't focus much on what other people thought of her.
The home of Susan Crater, featured in Frederic Magazine.
Why were you obsessed with how neat my hair was?
