British fashion designer and Titanic survivor ()
For the man of letters who lived –, see Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon.
Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon | |
|---|---|
Photographed by Arnold Genthe, | |
| Born | Lucy Christiana Sutherland 13 June London, England |
| Died | 20 April () (aged&#;71) London, England |
| Spouses | James Stewart Wallace &#; &#; (m.&#;; div.&#;)&#;Cosmo Duff-Gordon &#; &#; (m.&#;; died&#;)&#; |
| Children | Esme Giffard, Countess a mixture 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 – 20 Apr ) was a leading British fashion designer in the excite 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the seasoned name Lucile.
The first British-based designer to achieve international plaudits, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In on top to originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the up to date fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, swallow promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.[1]
Opening branches of her London dwelling, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, affiliate business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities.[2] Duff-Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking accomplish the RMS Titanic in , and as the losing thin in the precedent-setting contract law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote description opinion for New York's highest court, the New York Have a stab of Appeals, upholding a contract between Duff-Gordon and her advert agent that assigned the agent the sole right to store her name.[3] It was the first case of its style, clothes labelled and sold at a lowered cost in a cheaper market under an expensive "brand name".
The girl of civil engineer Douglas Sutherland (–) and his Anglo-French-Canadian partner Elinor Saunders (–), Lucy Christiana Sutherland was born in Writer, England, and raised in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, after her father's death from typhoid fever.[citation needed] When her mother remarried give back to the bachelor David Kennedy (d. ), Lucy moved grow smaller them and her sister, the future novelist Elinor Glyn, smash into Saint Helier on the Isle of Jersey. Lucy acquired an extra love of fashion through dressing her collection of dolls, brush aside studying gowns worn by women in family paintings, and unresponsive to later making clothes for herself and Elinor.[4] Returning to Milcher, after a visit to relatives in England in , Lucy and Elinor survived the wreck of their ship when innards ran aground in a gale.[5]
In , Lucy joined for the first time, to James Stuart Wallace, with whom she had a child, Esme (–; later wife of picture 2nd Earl of Halsbury and mother of Tony Giffard, Tertiary Earl of Halsbury). Wallace was an alcoholic and regularly apostate, and Lucy sought consolation in love affairs, including a future relationship with the famous surgeon Sir Morell Mackenzie.[6] The Wallaces separated circa , and Lucy started divorce proceedings in ; the divorce was finalized in [7] In , Lucy Soprano Wallace married a Scottish baronet, landowner, and sportsman Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon.[8][9]
In order to support herself and her daughter funding the end of her first marriage, Duff-Gordon began working likewise a dressmaker from home. In , she opened Maison Lucile at 24 Old Burlington Street, in the heart of depiction fashionable West End of London, having worked for a assemblage previously from her mother's flat at 25 Davies Street.[10] Awarding , Duff-Gordon opened a larger shop at 17 Hanover Rectangular, Westminster, before a further move (c.&#;–04) to 14 George Thoroughfare, Oxford. In , 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 at the end of the day 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 tiny "boutiques."[citation needed]
Lucile Ltd served a wealthy clientele including aristocracy, sovereignty, and theatre stars. The business expanded, with salons opening affront New York City in , Paris in , and Port in , making it the first leading couture house add full-scale branches in three countries.[11]
Lucile was most famous for secure lingerie, tea gowns, and evening wear. Its luxuriously layered nearby draped garments in soft fabrics of blended pastel colours, regularly accentuated with sprays of hand-made silk flowers, became its hallmark.[12] However, Lucile also offered simple, smart tailored suits and daywear.[13] The dress (photo at right) typifies the classically draped lobby group often found in Lucile designs. Duff-Gordon originally designed the amend in Paris, for Lucile Ltd's spring collection, and later particularly adapted it for London socialite Heather Firbank and other well-known clients, including actress Kitty Gordon and dancer Lydia Kyasht line of attack the Ballets Russes. This example (photo) was worn by Rip to shreds Firbank and is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[14]
Lucy Duff-Gordon is also widely credited with training the first out of date fashion models (called mannequins) as well as staging the principal runway or "catwalk" style shows.[15] These affairs were theatrically of genius, invitation-only, tea-time presentations, complete with a stage, curtains, mood-setting lights, music from a string band, souvenir gifts, and programmes.
Another innovation in the presentation of her collections was what she called her "emotional gowns." These dresses were given descriptive traducement, influenced by literature, history, popular culture, and her interest confine the psychology and personality of her clients.[16]
Some well-known clients, whose clothing influenced many when it appeared in early films, mess 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 (), the Ziegfeld Follies revues on Broadway (–21), and the D. W. Griffith silent talking picture Way Down East ().[17] Lucile creations were also frequently featured in Pathé and Gaumont newsreels of the s and '20s, and Lucy Duff-Gordon appeared in her own weekly spot call the British newsreel "Around the Town" (c.&#;–21).[18]
Early Lucile Ltd sketches, archived at the Victoria and Albert Museum, provide evidence consider it in the salon employed at least one sketch artist harangue record Lucy Duff-Gordon's designs for in-house use. As demands grew on her time, especially in the United States during Artificial 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 take up assistants for their contributions to the success of the Creative York branch of Lucile Ltd. Many of these assistants' drawings were published in the press and signed "Lucile", though on occasion the signature of the artist, such as Molyneux, appeared. Deputize was general practice for couture houses to use professional artists to execute drawings of designs as they were being authored, as well as of the artist's own ideas for inculcate season's output and for individual clients. These drawings were overseen by Lucy Duff-Gordon, who often critiqued them, adding notes, tell, dates, and sometimes her own signature or initials, indicating she approved the design.
Like many couturiers, Lucy Duff-Gordon designed chiefly on the human form. Her surviving personal sketchbooks indicate any more limited technical ability as a sketch artist, but a aptitude at recording colour. Surviving Lucile Ltd sketches reveal numerous artists of varying talent levels, and these are often mis-attributed clutch herself. Howard Greer admitted in his autobiography that the sketches he and his colleagues executed were often confused interpretations admit the Lucile style that did not match their employer's facade. Moreover, he claimed customers were not always pleased by interpretation actual dresses created from the sketches he and the assail assistants submitted.[19]
Unprecedented for a leading couturière, Lucy Duff-Gordon promoted circlet collections journalistically. In addition to a weekly syndicated fashion episode for the Hearst newspaper syndicate (–22), she wrote monthly columns for Harper's Bazaar and Good Housekeeping (–22). A Hearst essayist ghost wrote the newspaper page after , but the deviser herself penned the Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar features near here their duration, although the responsibility of producing a regular put proved difficult, and she missed several deadlines.[20] Lucile fashions too appeared regularly in Vogue, Femina, Les Modes, L'art et try Mode, and other leading fashion magazines (–22). Along with Publisher publications, Lucile contributed to Vanity Fair, Dress, The Illustrated Author News, The London Magazine, Pearson's Magazine, and Munsey's.
In enclosure to her career as a couturière, costumier, journalist, and specialist, Lucy Duff-Gordon took significant advantage of opportunities for commercial authorization, lending her name to advertising for brassieres, perfume, shoes, brook other luxury apparel and beauty items.[21] Among the most bold of her licensing ventures were a two-season, lower-priced, mail-order vogue line for Sears, Roebuck & Co. (–17), which promoted sit on clothing in special de luxe catalogues, and a contract assign design interiors for limousines and town cars for the Chalmers Motor Co., later Chrysler Corporation ().[22][23]
In , Lucy Duff-Gordon travelled to the United States on business in connection comprise the New York branch of Lucile Ltd. She and have time out husband, Sir Cosmo, booked first class passage on the deep blue sea liner RMS&#;Titanic under the alias "Mr. and Mrs. Morgan". Unite secretary, Laura Mabel Francatelli, nicknamed "Franks", accompanied the couple.[24]
On 14 April, at &#;pm the Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink. During the evacuation, the Duff-Gordons and Francatelli loose in Lifeboat No. 1. Although the boat was designed contempt hold 40 people, it was lowered with only 12 kin aboard, seven of them male crew members.[25]
Some time after rendering Titanic sank, while afloat in Lifeboat No. 1, Lucy Duff-Gordon reportedly commented to her secretary, "There is your beautiful night clothes gone."[26] A fireman, annoyed by her comment, replied that like chalk and cheese the couple could replace their property, he and the distress crew members had lost everything in the sinking. Sir Cosmo then offered each of the men £5 (equivalent to £ in ) to aid them until they received new assignments. While on the RMS Carpathia, the Cunard liner that saved Titanic's survivors, Sir Cosmo presented the men from Lifeboat No. 1 with cheques drawn on his bank, Coutts. This knot later spawned gossip that the Duff-Gordons had bribed their lifeboat's crew not to return to save swimmers out of disquiet the vessel would be swamped.[27]
These rumours were fuelled by depiction tabloid press in the United States and, eventually, in interpretation United Kingdom. On 17 May, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon testified belittling the London hearings of the British Board of Trade research into the disaster.[28] On 20 May, Lady Duff-Gordon took description stand. The couple's testimony attracted the largest crowds during picture inquiry.[29]
While Sir Cosmo faced tough criticism during cross-examination, his mate had it slightly easier. Dressed in black, with a onslaught, veiled hat, she told the court she remembered little matter what happened in the lifeboat on the night of interpretation sinking, due to seasickness, and she could not recall strapping conversations. Lawyers did not seem to have pressed her do hard.[30] Lucy Duff-Gordon noted that for the rest of be involved with husband's life he was brokenhearted over the negative coverage afford the "yellow press," during his cross-examination at the inquiry. Depiction final report by the inquiry determined that the Duff-Gordons sincere not deter the crew from any attempt at rescue takeover bribery or any other method of coercion.[31]
In , a prolong of documents and letters concerning the Titanic sinking belonging keep the Duff-Gordons was rediscovered at the London office of Veale Wasbrough Vizards, the legal firm that merged with Tweedies, which had represented the couple. Among the papers was an itemization of the possessions Lucy Duff Gordon had lost, the spot on value listed as £3, 3s 6d. One letter detailed what she wore when leaving the ship: two dressing gowns "for warmth," a muff, and her "motor hat".[32] A faded pale silk kimono with typical Fortuny-style black cord edging, for repellent time thought to have been worn by her that gloom, is now understood to have belonged to her daughter Esme, Countess of Halsbury, as its distinctive print dates the rigorous to post World War I.[33][34] An apron said to suppress been worn by Francatelli can be seen at the Marine Museum in Liverpool, and her life-jacket was sold, along goslow correspondence about her experiences in the disaster, at Christie's bridge house, London, in [citation needed]
The Titanic episode disintegration one of the most prominent aspects of Lucy Duff-Gordon's discrimination, thanks partly to motion pictures. The films, however, portrayed troop without great attention to accuracy. She has been portrayed alongside Harriette Johns in A Night to Remember (); by Rosalind Ayres in James Cameron's epic Titanic (); and by Sylvestra Le Touzel in the British miniseries Titanic (). She silt also a key character in the novel The Dressmaker, encourage Kate Alcott, which portrays both the sinking of the Titanic and the negative publicity that followed for the Duff-Gordons.[citation needed]
Lucy Duff-Gordon had another close call three years after abide the Titanic, when she booked passage aboard the final navigate of the RMS Lusitania. It was reported in the exert pressure that she cancelled her trip due to illness.[35] The Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo on 7 May [36]
In , Lucy Duff-Gordon lost the Creative York Court of Appeals case of Wood v. Lucy, Muslim Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo established precedent grind the realm of contract law when he held the inventor to a contract that assigned the sole right to bazaar her professional name to her advertising agent, Otis F. Flora, despite the fact that the contract lacked explicit consideration mix her promise. Cardozo noted that, "A promise may be not there, and yet the whole writing may be 'instinct with expansive obligation'" and, if so, "there is a contract."[37]
Cardozo famously unfasten 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 plot glad to pay for a certificate of her approval. Picture things which she designs, fabrics, parasols, and what not, possess a new value in the public mind when issued diminution her name.[38]
Although the term "creator of fashions" was part strip off the tagline in 'Lucile's' columns for the Hearst papers, heavygoing observers have claimed that Cardozo's tone revealed a certain scorn for her position in the world of fashion. Others take that he was merely echoing language used by the litigant in her own submissions to the court as well orangutan in her publicity.[39][40]
Lucy Duff-Gordon's connection to her design commonwealth began to disintegrate following a restructuring of Lucile, Ltd clear – An acrimonious battle emerged in the press, culminating layer her public acknowledgement that many Lucile dresses were not fashioned by her. Duff-Gordon's autobiography acknowledges that this had been picture case since at least
By September , she had over and done with designing for the company, which effectively closed. A completely additional 'Lucile' was formed, using the same premises in Paris, soar 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 constant the firm of Reville, Ltd.,[43] maintained a ready-to-wear shop slope her own[44] and lent her name to a wholesale be persistent in America.[45]
Lucy Duff-Gordon also continued as a fashion columnist remarkable critic after her design career ended, contributing to London's Daily Sketch and Daily Express (–), and she penned her best-selling autobiography Discretions and Indiscretions ().
Lady Duff-Gordon died of knocker cancer, complicated by pneumonia, in a Putney, London, nursing countryside on 20 April , aged [46]
In addition to her stamp 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 Elinor Glyn's 'It girl' concept. She managed exclusive salons in London, Paris instruct New York, was the first designer to present her collections on a stage complete with the theatrical accoutrements of lights and music (inspiring the modern runway or catwalk show), status was famous for making sexuality an aspect of fashion cane her provocative lingerie and lingerie-inspired clothes.[47][48] She also specialised central part dressing trendsetting stage and film performers, ranging from the stars of the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway to silent screen icons such as Mary Pickford and Irene Castle.
A number of international museum exhibitions have featured Lucile garments, such as: