GRAY’S CHANGING IDENTITY

Eileen Gray’s own construction of her identity is revealed in photographs taken of her over her long life. As a child and young adult, she dresses in accordance with her aristocratic status. The later adoption of masculine clothing seen in photographs from the 1920s corresponds to her emergence as a modern architect and designer who is likely to have been bisexual. Gray can easily be perceived in this image as being among many of her fellow women who during the 1920s radically changed their personas to evoke a more independent lifestyle and to show how they self-identified as modern.