Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon

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For the writer who lived 1821–1869, see Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon.
Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
LadyDuffGordon-1919.jpg
Lucile in 1919, photographed by Arnold Genthe
Born 13 June 1863
London, England
Died 20 April 1935(1935-04-20) (aged 71)
Putney, London, England
Nationality English
Occupation Fashion designer
Labels Lucile Ltd.

Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (née Sutherland) (13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, best known as "Lucile", her professional name. Lucile, the first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. Apart from originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched liberating 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 Paris, New York City, and Chicago, her 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 of Titanic in 1912, and as the losing party in the precedent-setting 1917 contract law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote the opinion for New York's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.[3]

Early life[edit]

Daughter of civil engineer Douglas Sutherland (1838–1865) and his Anglo-French-Canadian wife Elinor Saunders (1841–1937), Lucy Christiana Sutherland was born in London, England, and raised in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, after her father's death from typhoid fever. When her mother remarried in 1871 to the bachelor David Kennedy (d. 1889) she moved with them and her sister, the future novelist Elinor Glyn, to Saint Helier on the Isle of Jersey. Lucy acquired her love of fashion through dressing her collection of dolls, by studying gowns worn by women in family paintings and later making clothes for herself and her sister.[4] Returning to Jersey, after a visit to relatives in England in 1875, Lucy and Elinor survived the wreck of their ship when it ran aground in a gale.[5]

Marriage and family[edit]

In 1884 Lucy married James Stuart Wallace, with whom she had a child, Esme (1885–1973) (later wife of the 2nd Earl of Halsbury and mother of Anthony, 3rd Earl of Halsbury). An alcoholic, Wallace was regularly unfaithful, and Lucy sought consolation in love affairs, including a long relationship with the famous surgeon Sir Morell Mackenzie.[6] The Wallaces separated in about 1890, and Lucy started divorce proceedings in 1893.[7] In 1900 Lucy Sutherland Wallace married Scottish landowner and sportsman Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon.[8][9]

Fashion career[edit]

In order to support herself and her daughter after the end of her first marriage, Lucy began working as a dressmaker from home. In 1893 she opened Maison Lucile at 24 Old Burlington St., 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 a larger shop was opened at 17 Hanover Square, before a further move (c. 1903–04) to 14 George St. 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.

Lucile Ltd served a wealthy clientele including aristocracy, royalty and theatre stars. The business expanded with salons opening in New York City, Paris, and Chicago in 1910, 1911 and 1915 respectively, becoming the first leading couture house with full-scale branches in three countries.[11]

Evening dress, Spring 1913, Lucile (1863–1935) V&A Museum no. T.31-1960

Lucile was most famous for her lingerie, tea gowns, and evening wear. The dress illustrated at right typifies a classically draped style often found in Lucile designs. It was originally designed by Lucy Duff Gordon in Paris for Lucile Ltd's spring 1913 collection and later especially adapted for London socialite Heather Firbank and other well-known clients, including actress Kitty Gordon and dancer Lydia Kyasht of the Ballets Russes. The example illustrated was worn by Miss Firbank and is preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[12]

She is also widely credited with training the first professional fashion models (called mannequins) as well as staging the first runway or "catwalk" style shows.[13] These affairs were theatrically inspired, invitation-only, tea-time presentations, complete with a stage, curtains, mood-setting lighting, 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 names, influenced by literature, history, popular culture and Lucile's interest in the psychology and personality of her clients.[14]

The designer was especially noted for her luxuriously layered and draped garments in soft fabrics of blended pastel colors, often accentuated with sprays of hand-made silk flowers, which became a hallmark of her work.[15] However, Lucile also created simple, smart tailored suits and daywear.[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] Her fashions were also frequently featured in Pathé and Gaumont newsreels of the 1910s and 20s, and she 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 the designer's 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, the designer 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, 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 their own ideas for each season's output and for individual clients. These drawings were overseen by Lucile who often critiqued them, adding notes, instructions, dates and sometimes her own signature or initials, indicating she approved the design.

Like many couturiers, Lucile designed principally on the human form. Her surviving personal sketchbooks at the V&A, although revealing often incomplete drawings, demonstrate an adroit skill and indicate her exceptional understanding of color. However, she considered the work of the professional artists she employed superior to her own and preferred their use in publication.[19] Surviving Lucile Ltd sketches indicate numerous artists of varying talent, and these are often mis-attributed to Lucile 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 mentor's vision. Moreover, he claimed customers were not always pleased by the actual dresses created from the sketches he and the other assistants submitted. [20]

Unprecedented for a leading couturiere, Duff-Gordon promoted her collections journalistically. In addition to a weekly syndicated fashion page for the Hearst newspaper syndicate (1910–22), she wrote monthly columns for Harper's Bazaar and Good Housekeeping (1912–22). A Hearst writer ghosted the newspaper page after 1918 but the designer herself penned the Good Housekeeping and Harper's Bazaar features throughout their duration, although the responsibility of producing a regular piece proved difficult and she missed several deadlines.[21] Lucile fashions also appeared regularly in Vogue, Femina, Les Modes, L'art et la Mode and other leading fashion magazines (1910-1922). Along with Hearst publications, Lucile contributed to Vanity Fair, Dress, the The Illustrated London News, The London Magazine, Pearson's Magazine and Munsey's.

In addition to her career as a couturière, costumier, journalist and pundit, Lucile took significant advantage of opportunities for commercial endorsement, lending her name to advertising for shoes, brassieres, perfume and other luxury apparel and beauty items.[22] 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).[23]

RMS Titanic[edit]

In 1912, Duff Gordon traveled to America on business in connection with the New York branch of Lucile Ltd. She and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, booked first class passage on the ocean liner RMS Titanic under the alias "Mr. and Mrs. Morgan", a possible explanation being that they hoped to avoid publicity on landing in New York. Lucile's 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 Lifeboat 1. Although the boat was designed to hold 40 people, it was lowered with only 12 (seven of them male crew).[25]

Some time after the ship sank, while afloat in Boat 1, Lucile 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. Cosmo Duff Gordon then offered each of the men £5 to aid them until they received new assignments. While on the RMS Carpathia, the Cunard liner that rescued Titanic's survivors, Cosmo Duff Gordon presented the men from Boat 1 with checks drawn on his bank in London (Coutts). This action later spawned gossip that the Duff Gordons bribed their boat's crew not to return to save swimmers out of fear it would be swamped.[27]

These rumors were fueled by the tabloid press in the United States and, eventually, in the United Kingdom. On May 17, Cosmo Duff Gordon testified in London at the hearings of the British Board of Trade inquiry into the disaster.[28] On May 20, Lucile took the stand. Their testimony attracted the largest crowds during the inquiry.[29]

Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon faced tough criticism during cross-examination while 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 could not recall specific conversations. Lawyers did not seem to have pressed her very hard.[30] Lucile noted that for the rest of her husband's life he was broken-hearted 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]

The Titanic episode is one of the most tangible aspects of Lucile's life, thanks partly to motion pictures. The films, however, portrayed her without great attention to accuracy: in cameo by Harriette Johns in A Night to Remember (1958), produced by William MacQuitty, and again by Rosalind Ayres in James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic. In the latter film, the role of Lucile's husband Cosmo was portrayed by the actress' own husband, Martin Jarvis. In the 2012 British miniseries Titanic, Lucile was played by Sylvestra Le Touzel.

A faded grey silk kimono with typical Fortuny style black cord edging, for some time thought to have been worn by Lucile as she escaped the Titanic, is now understood to have belonged to her daughter Esme, Countess of Halsbury. The distinctive print on that garment, designed by Mariano Fortuny, dates the item to post World War One. Fortuny suffered from failing sales following business problems in 1915, when his business assets were seized. The company reopened with a new name later that year, and following further changes, opened a new factory in 1919 with more commercial designs using new patented techniques.[32] Letters written by Lucile reveal the features of two bathrobes she wore off the Titanic. One was pink, one purple, and both were chosen "for warmth." One was a partially made garment she described as grabbing in a rush from the Paris branch of her salon. She also described wearing a pair of pink Yantorny slippers, a blue head wrap and a squirrel coat and her 'motor hat'.[33] An apron said to have been worn by Lucile's secretary, Laura Francatelli, can be seen at the Maritime Museum in Liverpool, and her life-jacket was sold, along with correspondence about her experiences in the disaster, at Christie's, London, in 2007.

Lucile had another close call three years after surviving the Titanic when she booked passage aboard the RMS Lusitania on its last voyage. It was reported in the press that she cancelled her trip due to illness.[34] The Lusitania was sunk by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915.[35]

Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon[edit]

In 1917, the designer lost the New York Court of Appeals case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo established precedent in the realm of contract law when he held Lucile to a contract that assigned the sole right to market her name to her advertising agent, Otis F. Wood, despite the fact that the contract lacked explicit consideration for her promise. Cardozo noted that, "A promise may be lacking, and yet the whole writing may be 'instinct with an obligation'" and, if so, "there is a contract." 222 N.Y. 88, 118 N.E. 214 (1917).

Cardozo famously opened the opinion with the following description of Lucile:

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.

Although the term "creator of fashions" was part of the tagline in her columns for the Hearst papers, some observers have claimed that Cardozo's tone revealed a certain disdain for Lucile's 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.[36]

Later life and death[edit]

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 Duff Gordon's public acknowledgment that since Spring 1921 many Lucile dresses had not been designed by her. By September 1922 she had ceased designing for the company, which gradually diminished in success after her departure.[37] Meanwhile, its founder (who continued to be known as Lucile) worked from private premises designing personally for individual clients.[38] She was briefly associated with the firm of Reville, Ltd.,[39] maintained a ready-to-wear shop of her own[40] and lent her name to a wholesale operation in America.[41]

Lucile 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 in 1932. She died of breast cancer, complicated by pneumonia, in a Putney, London nursing home in 1935 at the age of 71.[42] The date of her death, 20 April, was the fourth anniversary of her husband's death.

Legacy[edit]

Lucile's former assistant, Howard Greer, published memories of his years working with her in the book Designing Male (1950). A dual biography of Lucile and her sister Elinor Glyn, called The 'It' Girls, by Meredith Etherington-Smith, was published in 1986, the title stemming from Elinor's popularization of the euphemism "it" to denote sexuality or "sex appeal."

A number of international museum exhibitions have featured Lucile garments in recent years, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Cubism and Fashion" (1999), the Museum of the City of New York's "Fashion on Stage" (1999) and the Victoria and Albert Museum's "Black in Fashion" (2000) As of 2006, the V&A included a Lucile suit on permanent exhibit. 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) 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.

The Victoria and Albert Museum published Lucile Ltd by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes in June 2009. In 2011-12 Lucy Duff Gordon's great-great granddaughter, Camilla Blois, revived the Lucile brand, concentrating on lingerie, as her ancestor had when she started in business in the 1890s.[43] The year marked a resurgence of interest in the couturiere's legacy. In addition to the Sundance Channel documentary, Love, Lust & Lingerie, which featured a detailed segment on Lucile's contributions to fashion history, the British-produced miniseries Titanic, written by Downton Abbey's Julian Fellowes, included a cameo portrayal of the designer. Two critically acclaimed accounts of the disaster, Shadow of the Titanic by Andrew Wilson and Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage by Hugh Brewster, included extensive chapters on Lucile. Five other books published in 2011-12 explored Lucile's career. Among them were a biography, Lucile: Her Life by Design by Randy Bigham, and a novel, The Dressmaker, by Kate Alcott. Other titles included Staging Fashion, which examined the Lucile wardrobes of actresses Lily Elsie and Billie Burke, and Performance, Fashion and the Modern Interior, which included a chapter on the décor of Lucile's salons. Finally, the couturiere's 1932 autobiography, Discretions and Indiscretions, was republished under the title A Woman of Temperament.

Most recently, Lucile was referenced in the third season of the television series Downton Abbey, airing in 2012-2013, and she was mentioned twice in the first and second season of the series Mr. Selfridge in 2013-2014. The designer was also discussed at length in the first in-depth study of the history of the fashion show, The Mechanical Smile by Caroline Evans, published in 2013.

Titles[edit]

  • 1863–1884: Miss Lucy Christiana Sutherland
  • 1884–1900: Mrs. James Stuart Wallace
  • 1900–1935: Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Etherington-Smith, Meredith, The "It" Girls (1986), 56–57; Mendes, Valerie D., Lucile Ltd(2009), 22, 26
  2. ^ O'Hara, Georgina, The Encyclopedia of Fashion (1986), 164; Bowles, Hamish, "The Look of the Century", Vogue , Nov. 1999, 453
  3. ^ Lynch, Don, Titanic: An Illustrated History(1992),182–185; 222 N.Y. 88, N.E.214
  4. ^ Duff Gordon, Lucy, Discretions and Indiscretions(1932), 6,9,17; Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure(1936), 47
  5. ^ Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure, 27–28
  6. ^ Duff Gordon, Lucy, Discretions and Indiscretions, 22, 23, 33–35; Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure, 54
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Glasgow Herald, 19 May 1900
  9. ^ "GORDON, Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-". Who's Who, 59: p. 699. 1907. 
  10. ^ "At the Shops: Modes at the Maison Lucile," Hearth and Home, 4 January 1894
  11. ^ "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
  12. ^ Duff Gordon, Lady ("Lucile"), "The Last Word in Fashions," Harper's Bazar, 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.
  13. ^ 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 Bazar, Aug. 1914, 38–41
  14. ^ Aspinwall, Grace, "Lady Duff Gordon: A Titled Designer of Clothes Who Aims to Dress the Soul," Good Housekeeping, Nov. 1910, 572–573
  15. ^ "Dream Dresses", Philadelphia Museum of Art (1998), Best Dressed, 22
  16. ^ Ginsburg, Madeleine, Four Hundred Years of Fashion (1984), 81
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ Leese, Elizabeth, Costume Design in the Movies (1991), 75; Hammerton, Jenny, For Ladies Only:Eve's Film Review/Pathe Cinemagazine, 1921–33, 52
  19. ^ Bigham, Randy Bryan, Lucile - Her Life by Design (2012), 120.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ Etherington-Smith, Meredith, The "It" Girls (1986), 196; Mendes, Valerie D., Lucile Ltd (2009), 196–197
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ Bigham, Randy Bryan, "Lady Duff Gordon: Saved From the Titanic", Titanic Commutator, Spring 1991, 5–11
  25. ^ Boats No. 1 and No. 2 differed from other lifeboats in that they were intended as emergency cutters. See: RMS Titanic Lifeboat No. 1
  26. ^ Lord, Walter, A Night to Remember (1955), 105
  27. ^ Lord, 127
  28. ^ New York Times, May 18, 1912
  29. ^ Lynch, Don, Titanic: An Illustrated History (1992), 183–185
  30. ^ "Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon at the Titanic Inquiry", The Sketch, May 22, 1912, p. 100.
  31. ^ "Conduct of Sir Cosmo-Duff Gordon and Mr. Ismay". Titanic Inquiry Project. Retrieved 2 January 2006. 
  32. ^ Taylor, Dr. Lou, Mario Fortuny Venise, Brighton Museum
  33. ^ unpublished letter from Lucile to her sister Elinor Glyn, in the possession of the Duff Gordon descendants; Daily Telegraph, April 14, 2012; Laura Mabel Francatelli correspondence, sold Christies 2007; letter referenced in New York Times, 9 May 1912
  34. ^ "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.
  35. ^ "The Lusitania Resource". rmslusitania.info. 
  36. ^ Duff Gordon, Lady ("Lucile"), "Spider Web Fashions," San Francisco Examiner, 12 July 1917; 177 A.D. 624, 164 N.Y.S. 576 and 222 N.Y. 88, 118 N.E. 214
  37. ^ Wilson, Robert Forrest, Paris on Parade (1924), 67
  38. ^ Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, Couture: The Great Designers, (1985), 69
  39. ^ "Lady Duff Gordon Resigns," Women's Wear Daily, 23 March 1927, 3
  40. ^ "Ready-to-Wear Gowns Featured in Lady Duff Gordon's London Shop," Women's Wear Daily, 29 May 1924, 2
  41. ^ "Dufgor, Inc," Women's Wear Daily, 16 August 1926, 2; "The People's Store," Charleston Gazette, 17 March 1929, 2
  42. ^ "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.
  43. ^ "The Lady, 4 May 2012". 

References[edit]

  • Callan, Georgina O'Hara. The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Fashion and Fashion Designers. ISBN 0-500-20313-X. 
  • de la Haye, Amy and Valerie D. Mendes. Twentieth Century Fashion. ISBN 0-500-20321-0. 
  • de la Haye, Amy and Valerie D. Mendes. Lucile Ltd. ISBN 978-1-851-775613. 
  • De Marly, Diana. The History of Haute Couture. ISBN 0-7134-1988-1. 
  • Dormer, Peter, ed. The Illustrated Dictionary of 20th Century Designers. ISBN 0-7924-5514-2. 
  • Duff Gordon, Lady ("Lucile") (1932). Discretions and Indiscretions. 
  • Etherington-Smith, Meredith and Jeremy Pilcher. The 'It' Girls: Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, the Couturiere 'Lucile,' and Elinor Glyn, Romantic Novelist. ISBN 0-15-145774-3. 
  • Ewing, Elizabeth. The History of 20th Century Fashion. ISBN 0-7134-6818-1. 
  • FIDM Museum and Randy Bryan Bigham. Lucile - Her Life by Design. ISBN 0-615-60998-8. 
  • Greer, Howard (1950). Designing Male. 
  • Kaplan, Joel H. and Sheila Stowell. Theatre and fashion: Oscar Wilde to the suffragettes. ISBN 0-521-41510-1. 
  • Kennett, Frances. The Collectors' Book of Fashion. ISBN 0-517-54860-7. 
  • Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember. ISBN 0-553-01060-3. 
  • Lynch, Don (1993). Titanic: An Illustrated History. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8147-X. 
  • Marcus, Geoffrey. The Maiden Voyage. ISBN 0-04-440263-5. 
  • Milbank, Caroline Rennolds. Couture: The Great Designers. ISBN 0-941434-51-6. 

External links[edit]

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