Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon | |
---|---|
Born | Lucy Christiana Sutherland 13 June 1863 London, England |
Died | 20 April 1935 London, England | (aged 71)
Spouses | |
Children | Esme Giffard, Countess of Halsbury |
Relatives | Elinor Glyn (sister) Tony Giffard, 3rd Earl of Halsbury (grandson) |
Nationality | English |
Label | Lucile Ltd. |
Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Sutherland; 13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading British
The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In addition to originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.[1]
Opening branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, her business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities.
Early life
The daughter of
Marriage and family
In 1884, Lucy married for the first time, to James Stuart Wallace, with whom she had a child, Esme (1885–1973; later wife of the
Fashion career
In order to support herself and her daughter after the end of her first marriage, Duff-Gordon began working as a dressmaker from home. In 1893, she opened Maison Lucile at 24 Old Burlington Street, in the heart of the fashionable West End of London, having worked for a year previously from her mother's flat at 25 Davies Street.[10] In 1897, Duff-Gordon opened a larger shop at 17 Hanover Square, Westminster, before a further move (c. 1903–04) to 14 George Street, Oxford. In 1903, the business was incorporated as "Lucile Ltd" and the following year moved to 23 Hanover Square, where it operated for the next 20 years. Duff-Gordon was eventually bankrupted after she revealed in the American press that she was not designing much of the clothing that was attributed to her name. She spent her later years selling imported clothing and smaller collections in a succession of unsuccessful small "boutiques."[citation needed]
Lucile Ltd served a wealthy clientele including aristocracy, royalty, and theatre stars. The business expanded, with salons opening in New York City in 1910, Paris in 1911, and Chicago in 1915, making it the first leading couture house with full-scale branches in three countries.[11]
Lucile was most famous for its lingerie,
Lucy Duff-Gordon is also widely credited with training the first professional fashion models (called mannequins) as well as staging the first runway or "
Another innovation in the presentation of her collections was what she called her "emotional gowns." These dresses were given descriptive names, influenced by literature, history, popular culture, and her interest in the psychology and personality of her clients.[16]
Some well-known clients, whose clothing influenced many when it appeared in early films, on stage, and in the press, included: Irene Castle, Lily Elsie, Gertie Millar, Gaby Deslys, Billie Burke, and Mary Pickford. Lucile costumed numerous theatrical productions, including the London première of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow (1907), the Ziegfeld Follies revues on Broadway (1915–21), and the D. W. Griffith silent movie Way Down East (1920).[17] Lucile creations were also frequently featured in Pathé and Gaumont newsreels of the 1910s and '20s, and Lucy Duff-Gordon appeared in her own weekly spot in the British newsreel "Around the Town" (c. 1919–21).[18]
Early Lucile Ltd sketches, archived at the Victoria and Albert Museum, provide evidence that in 1904 the salon employed at least one sketch artist to record Lucy Duff-Gordon's designs for in-house use. As demands grew on her time, especially in the United States during World War I, she was aided by sketch artists Robert Kalloch, Roger Bealle, Gilbert Clarke, Howard Greer, Shirley Barker, Travis Banton, and Edward Molyneux, who created ideas based on the "Lucile look". In her memoir, Lucy Duff-Gordon credited her corps of assistants for their contributions to the success of the New York branch of Lucile Ltd. Many of these assistants' drawings were published in the press and signed "Lucile", though occasionally the signature of the artist, such as Molyneux, appeared. It was general practice for couture houses to use professional artists to execute drawings of designs as they were being created, as well as of the artist's own ideas for each season's output and for individual clients. These drawings were overseen by Lucy Duff-Gordon, who often critiqued them, adding notes, instructions, dates, and sometimes her own signature or initials, indicating she approved the design.
Like many couturiers, Lucy Duff-Gordon designed principally on the human form. Her surviving personal sketchbooks indicate her limited technical ability as a sketch artist, but a skill at recording colour. Surviving Lucile Ltd sketches reveal numerous artists of varying talent levels, and these are often mis-attributed to herself. Howard Greer admitted in his autobiography that the sketches he and his colleagues executed were often confused interpretations of the Lucile style that did not match their employer's vision. Moreover, he claimed customers were not always pleased by the actual dresses created from the sketches he and the other assistants submitted.[19]
Unprecedented for a leading couturière, Lucy Duff-Gordon promoted her collections journalistically. In addition to a weekly syndicated fashion page for the
In addition to her career as a couturière, costumier, journalist, and pundit, Lucy Duff-Gordon took significant advantage of opportunities for commercial endorsement, lending her name to advertising for brassieres, perfume, shoes, and other luxury apparel and beauty items.[21] Among the most adventurous of her licensing ventures were a two-season, lower-priced, mail-order fashion line for Sears, Roebuck & Co. (1916–17), which promoted her clothing in special de luxe catalogues, and a contract to design interiors for limousines and town cars for the Chalmers Motor Co., later Chrysler Corporation (1917).[22][23]
RMS Titanic
In 1912, Lucy Duff-Gordon travelled to America on business in connection with the New York branch of Lucile Ltd. She and her husband, Sir Cosmo, booked first class passage on the ocean liner RMS Titanic under the alias "Mr. and Mrs. Morgan". Her secretary, Laura Mabel Francatelli, nicknamed "Franks", accompanied the couple.[24]
On 14 April, at 11:40 pm the Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink. During the evacuation, the Duff-Gordons and Francatelli escaped in
Some time after the Titanic sank, while afloat in Lifeboat No. 1, Lucy Duff-Gordon reportedly commented to her secretary, "There is your beautiful nightdress gone."[26] A fireman, annoyed by her comment, replied that while the couple could replace their property, he and the other crew members had lost everything in the sinking. Sir Cosmo then offered each of the men £5 (equivalent to £625 in 2023) to aid them until they received new assignments. While on the RMS Carpathia, the Cunard liner that rescued Titanic's survivors, Sir Cosmo presented the men from Lifeboat No. 1 with cheques drawn on his bank, Coutts. This action later spawned gossip that the Duff-Gordons had bribed their lifeboat's crew not to return to save swimmers out of fear the vessel would be swamped.[27]
These rumours were fuelled by the tabloid press in the United States and, eventually, in the United Kingdom. On 17 May, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon testified at the London hearings of the
While Sir Cosmo faced tough criticism during cross-examination, his wife had it slightly easier. Dressed in black, with a large, veiled hat, she told the court she remembered little about what happened in the lifeboat on the night of the sinking, due to seasickness, and she could not recall specific conversations. Lawyers did not seem to have pressed her very hard.[30] Lucy Duff-Gordon noted that for the rest of her husband's life he was brokenhearted over the negative coverage by the "yellow press," during his cross-examination at the inquiry. The final report by the inquiry determined that the Duff-Gordons did not deter the crew from any attempt at rescue through bribery or any other method of coercion.[31]
In 2012, a box of documents and letters concerning the Titanic sinking belonging to the Duff-Gordons was rediscovered at the London office of
In popular culture
The Titanic episode is one of the most prominent aspects of Lucy Duff-Gordon's life, thanks partly to motion pictures. The films, however, portrayed her without great attention to accuracy. She has been portrayed by Harriette Johns in
RMS Lusitania
Lucy Duff-Gordon had another close call three years after surviving the Titanic, when she booked passage aboard the final voyage of the RMS Lusitania. It was reported in the press that she cancelled her trip due to illness.[35] The Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915.[36]
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
In 1917, Lucy Duff-Gordon lost the
Cardozo famously opened the opinion with the following description of the designer:
The defendant styles herself "a creator of fashions." Her favor helps a sale. Manufacturers of dresses, millinery, and like articles are glad to pay for a certificate of her approval. The things which she designs, fabrics, parasols, and what not, have a new value in the public mind when issued in her name.[38]
Although the term "creator of fashions" was part of the tagline in 'Lucile's' columns for the Hearst papers, some observers have claimed that Cardozo's tone revealed a certain disdain for her position in the world of fashion. Others accept that he was merely echoing language used by the defendant in her own submissions to the court as well as in her publicity.[39][40]
Later life
Lucy Duff-Gordon's connection to her design empire began to disintegrate following a restructuring of Lucile, Ltd in 1918–19. An acrimonious battle emerged in the press, culminating in her public acknowledgement that many Lucile dresses were not designed by her. Duff-Gordon's autobiography acknowledges that this had been the case since at least 1911.
By September 1922, she had ceased designing for the company, which effectively closed. A completely new 'Lucile' was formed, using the same premises in Paris, and different designs, but it gradually failed.[41] Meanwhile, its founder (who continued to be known as 'Lucile') worked from private premises designing personally for individual clients.[42] She was briefly associated with the firm of Reville, Ltd.,[43] maintained a ready-to-wear shop of her own[44] and lent her name to a wholesale operation in America.[45]
Lucy Duff-Gordon also continued as a fashion columnist and critic after her design career ended, contributing to London's Daily Sketch and Daily Express (1922–1930), and she penned her best-selling autobiography Discretions and Indiscretions (1932).
Death
Lady Duff-Gordon died of breast cancer, complicated by pneumonia, in a Putney, London, nursing home on 20 April 1935, aged 71.[46] The date of her death, 20 April, was the fourth anniversary of her husband's death.
Legacy
In addition to her mark on culture, history, and the law, there has been a resurgence of interest in her work as a designer. She originated the fashion component of her sister
Books
- Lucile's former assistant, Howard Greer, published memories of his years working with her in the book Designing Male (1950).
- The title of Meredith Etherington-Smith's dual biography of Lucile and her sister Elinor Glyn, called The 'It' Girls (1986), stems from Elinor's popularization of the euphemism "it" to denote sexuality or "sex appeal".
- The Victoria and Albert Museum published Lucile Ltd (2009) by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes (ISBN 9781851775613)
- Andrew Wilson's book Shadow of the Titanic includes extensive chapters on Lucile.[citation needed]
- Hugh Brewster's book Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage includes extensive chapters on Lucile.[citation needed]
- Five other books published in 2011–12 explore Lucile's career. Among them are:
- Randy Bryan Bigham's biography, Lucile - Her Life by Design (2012)[49]
- A novel, The Dressmaker, by Kate Alcott[50]
- Staging Fashion, which examined the Lucile wardrobes of actresses Lily Elsie and Billie Burke[citation needed]
- Performance, Fashion and the Modern Interior, which includes a chapter (6 - 'Designing Lucile Ltd: couture and the modern interior 1900-1920s' by Samantha Erin Safer) on the décor of Lucile's salons
- The couturière's autobiography, Discretions and Indiscretions (New York, Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1932), was republished in 2012 under the title A Woman of Temperament (ISBN 978-1908002426)
- The designer is discussed in Caroline Evans' history of the fashion show, The Mechanical Smile (2013).[citation needed]
Exhibitions
A number of international museum exhibitions have featured Lucile garments, such as:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Cubism and Fashion" (1999)[51]
- The Museum of the City of New York's "Fashion on Stage" (1999)[citation needed]
- The Victoria and Albert Museum's "Black in Fashion" (2000)[citation needed]
- The first exhibition devoted exclusively to Lucile's work was the New York Fashion Institute of Technology's "Designing the It Girl: Lucile and Her Style" (2005).[52] It included pieces from The Museum at FIT's own collection of her work as well as items from the private "Lucile Ltd" archive of British textile designer Lewis Orchard, known for his expertise on the subject.[citation needed]
- As of 2006, the V&A included a Lucile suit on permanent exhibit.[citation needed]
- A set of costume drawings in the Museum of the City of New York, one signed "Lucile", are attributed to Duff-Gordon.[53]
Fashion
- In 1916, silent film star Edna Mayo wore "$10,000 worth of gowns designed by Lady Duff Gordon (Lucile), the famous modiste."[54]
- In 2011–12, Lucy Duff Gordon's great-great-granddaughter, Camilla Blois, revived the Lucile brand, concentrating on lingerie.[55]
Television
- The Sundance Channel documentary, Love, Lust & Lingerie (20 February 2012), features a segment on Lucile's contributions to fashion history.[56]
- The ITV1 miniseries Titanic (March–April 2012), written by Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes, includes a cameo portrayal of the designer.[57]
- Lucile is referenced in Downton Abbey, season 3 (2012–2013).
- She is mentioned twice in the first and second season of the series Mr. Selfridge(2013–2014).
- She is featured in a short historical featurette in an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee (Season 4, Episode 3)(2016).
Titles
- 1863–1884: Miss Lucy Christiana Sutherland
- 1884–1900: Mrs. James Stuart Wallace
- 1900–1935: Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Footnotes
- ^ Etherington-Smith, Meredith, The "It" Girls (1986), 56–57; Mendes, Valerie D., Lucile Ltd (2009), 22, 26.
- ^ O'Hara, Georgina, The Encyclopedia of Fashion (1986), 164; Bowles, Hamish, "The Look of the Century", Vogue, November 1999, 453.
- ^ Lynch, Don, Titanic: An Illustrated History(1992), 182–185; 222 N.Y. 88, N.E.214.
- ^ Duff Gordon, Lucy, Discretions and Indiscretions(1932), 6, 9, 17; Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure(1936), 47.
- ^ Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure, 27–28.
- ^ Duff Gordon, Lucy, Discretions and Indiscretions, 22, 23, 33–35; Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure, 54.
- ^ Date of 1890–1891 estimated from Lucy Duff Gordon's autobiography, Discretions and Indiscretions, 35; also see "She Changed Eve's Dress", London Daily Sketch (22 April 1935), 2: "The six years of my marriage to Jim were the worst years I ever knew." The Wallaces' divorce was finalized in 1895, as recorded in Supreme Court archives, and quoted in Lucile Ltd by Valerie D. Mendes and Amy de la Haye (2009), 216. Also, see Elinor Glyn: A Life by her grandson Anthony Glyn, which refers to the breakdown of his great-aunt's marriage
- ^ Glasgow Herald, 19 May 1900.
- ^ "GORDON, Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 699.
- ^ "At the Shops: Modes at the Maison Lucile", Hearth and Home, 4 January 1894.
- ^ "A High Priestess of Clothes," Vogue, 15 April 1910, 27ff; "How London Now Dresses Paris: Lady Duff Gordon's Work in the Gay City," Tatler, 23 April 1913, 134.
- ^ "Dream Dresses", Philadelphia Museum of Art (1998), Best Dressed, 22.
- ^ Ginsburg, Madeleine, Four Hundred Years of Fashion (1984), 81.
- ^ Duff Gordon, Lady ("Lucile"), "The Last Word in Fashions," Harper's Bazaar, July 1913, 26; also "Mousseline Now Holds First Place," New York Times, 6 July 1913, and "Vogue Points," Vogue, 15 May 1913; Gown worn by Heather Firbank. The original design included beading, lost or omitted from this example.
- ^ Howell, Georgina, Vogue Women (1998), 85; Mulvey, Kate, and Richards, Melissa, Decades of Beauty: The Changing Image of Women, 1890s–1990s (1998), 35; "Fashion's Stage: The Methods of the Theatre at the Dressmaker's," The Illustrated London News, 13 June 1908; "Lady Duff-Gordon – 'Lucile,'" Harper's Bazaar, Aug. 1914, 38–41.
- ^ Aspinwall, Grace, "Lady Duff Gordon: A Titled Designer of Clothes Who Aims to Dress the Soul," Good Housekeeping, November 1910, 572–573.
- ^ Beaton, Sir Cecil The Glass of Fashion (1954), 32–34, 94; Castle, Irene, Castles in the Air (1958), 135–136; Baral, Robert, Revue: The Great Broadway Period (1962), 59–61.
- ^ Leese, Elizabeth, Costume Design in the Movies (1991), 75; Hammerton, Jenny, For Ladies Only:Eve's Film Review/Pathe Cinemagazine, 1921–33, 52.
- ^ Duff Gordon, Lady, Discretions and Indiscretions (1932), 243; Bigham, Randy Bryan, Lucile - Her Life by Design (2012), 120–122; Mendes, Valerie D., Lucile Ltd (2009), 33; Greer, Howard, Designing Male (1950), 64–66.
- ^ Mendes, Valerie and Haye, Amy de la, Lucile Ltd (2009), 15, 170, 171, 179, 190, 196.; Evans, Caroline, The Mechanical Smile: Modernism and the First Fashion Shows in France and America, 1900–1929 (2013), 107, 214, 277; Bigham, Randy Bryan, Lucile - Her Life by Design (2012), 177-185.
- ^ Etherington-Smith, Meredith, The "It" Girls (1986), 196; Mendes, Valerie D., Lucile Ltd (2009), 196–197.
- ^ Olian, JoAnne, Everyday Fashions, 1909–1920: As Pictured in Sears Catalogs, 3–4; The Saturday Evening Post, "Interiors by Lady Duff Gordon," 7 October 1916, 57.
- ^ Harris-Gardiner, Rachel (20 August 2022). "Lucile: one of the first female auto stylists". Medium. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
- ^ Bigham, Randy Bryan, "Lady Duff Gordon: Saved From the Titanic", Titanic Commutator, Spring 1991, 5–11.
- RMS Titanic Lifeboat No. 1.
- ^ Lord, Walter, A Night to Remember (1955), p. 105.
- ^ Lord, 127.
- ^ New York Times, 18 May 1912.
- ^ Lynch, Don, Titanic: An Illustrated History (1992), 183–185.
- ^ "Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon at the Titanic Inquiry", The Sketch, 22 May 1912, p. 100.
- ^ "Conduct of Sir Cosmo-Duff Gordon and Mr. Ismay". Titanic Inquiry Project. Archived from the original on 28 October 2005. Retrieved 2 January 2006.
- ^ "Titanic survivors vindicated at last". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 April 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
- ^ Taylor, Dr. Lou, Mario Fortuny Venise, Brighton Museum
- ^ Feitelberg, Rosemary (16 April 2012). "A Titanic Controversy Over a Kimono".
- ^ "Lady Duff Gordon Ill," Women's Wear Daily, 29 April 1915, 1; "Friends of Lady Duff Gordon Thankful for her Escape," Women's Wear Daily, 10 May 1915, 11; other references to her plans to sail on Lusitania include M.D.C. Crawford's Ways of Fashion (1948), 66.
- ^ "The Lusitania Resource". rmslusitania.info. 26 March 2011.
- ^ Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, 222 N.Y. 88, 91 (Dec. 4, 1917).
- ^ Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, 222 N.Y. 88, 90 (Dec. 4, 1917).
- ^ Duff Gordon, Lady ("Lucile"), "Spider Web Fashions," San Francisco Examiner, 12 July 1917.
- ^ Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, 222 N.Y. 88, 90 (Dec. 4, 1917).
- ^ Wilson, Robert Forrest, Paris on Parade (1924), 67.
- ^ Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, Couture: The Great Designers, (1985), 69.
- ^ "Lady Duff Gordon Resigns," Women's Wear Daily, 23 March 1927, 3.
- ^ "Ready-to-Wear Gowns Featured in Lady Duff Gordon's London Shop," Women's Wear Daily, 29 May 1924, 2.
- ^ "Dufgor, Inc," Women's Wear Daily, 16 August 1926, 2; "The People's Store," Charleston Gazette, 17 March 1929, 2.
- ^ "Died:Lady Duff Gordon," Time, 29 April 1935, 67; "Lady Duff Gordon Dies at 71," New York Herald Tribune, 22 April 1935, 10; "Lady Duff Gordon, Style Expert Dies," New York Times, 22 April 1935, 17; "She Changed Eve's Dress," London Daily Sketch, 22 April 1935, 1–2.
- ^ Evans, Caroline. (2013). The Mechanical Smile, pp 34–36, 39–41
- ^ Bigham, Randy Bryan. (2012). Lucile: Her Life by Design pp 23–31.
- ^ Bigham, Randy Bryan (2012). Lucile - Her Life by Design. San Francisco: Lulu.Com. p. 34.
- ^ See, Carolyn (23 March 2012). ""The Dressmaker," by Kate Alcott". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
- ^ "CUBISM AND FASHION | The Metropolitan Museum of Art". Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
- ^ "Designing the It Girl: Lucile and Her Style | The Museum at FIT".
- ^ Delbert Unruh, Ione C. Unruh, Forgotten Designers (Page Publishing Inc, 2018), p. 274.
- ^ "A Fashion Show in the Films." Long Beach, California: Long Beach Daily Telegram, March 6, 1916, p. 2 (subscription required).
- ^ "The Lady, 4 May 2012". Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
- ^ "Love, Lust & Lingerie". IMDb. 20 February 2012.
- ^ Starr, Michael (22 March 2011). "Titanic Coming to TV". New York Post.
References
- Callan, Georgina O'Hara (1998). The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers. ISBN 0-500-20313-X.
- de la Haye, Amy & Valerie D. Mendes (1999). Twentieth Century Fashion. ISBN 0-500-20321-0.
- de la Haye, Amy & Valerie D. Mendes (June 2009). Lucile Ltd. ISBN 978-1-851-775613.
- De Marly, Diana (1980). The History of Haute Couture. ISBN 0-7134-1988-1.
- Dormer, Peter, ed. (1991). The Illustrated Dictionary of 20th Century Designers. ISBN 0-7924-5514-2.
- Duff Gordon, Lady ("Lucile") (1932). Discretions and Indiscretions.
- Etherington-Smith, Meredith & Jeremy Pilcher (1986). The 'It' Girls: Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, the Couturiere 'Lucile,' and Elinor Glyn, Romantic Novelist. ISBN 0-15-145774-3.
- Ewing, Elizabeth (1992). The History of 20th Century Fashion. ISBN 0-7134-6818-1.
- Randy Bryan Bigham (2012). Lucile - Her Life by Design. ISBN 978-0-615-60998-0.
- Greer, Howard (1950). Designing Male.
- Kaplan, Joel H. & Sheila Stowell (25 February 1994). Theatre and fashion: Oscar Wilde to the suffragettes. ISBN 0-521-41510-1.
- Kennett, Frances (1983). The Collectors' Book of Fashion. ISBN 0-517-54860-7.
- Lord, Walter (1976). A Night to Remember. ISBN 0-553-01060-3.
- Lynch, Don (1993). Titanic: An Illustrated History. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8147-X.
- Marcus, Geoffrey (1988). The Maiden Voyage. ISBN 0-04-440263-5.
- Milbank, Caroline Rennolds (1985). Couture: The Great Designers. ISBN 0-941434-51-6.
External links
- Lucy Duff-Gordon at Women Film Pioneers Project
- Lucile Lingerie
- Lucy Duff-Gordon's Death Certificate on Titanic-Titanic.com
- Madame Lucile: A Life in Style by Randy Bryan Bigham
- findagrave.com
- Fashion Institute of Technology Library's unit of Special Collections and College Archives Lucile, Ltd. collection (partial)