Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Encyclopedia
Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff Gordon (née Sutherland) (13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935) was a leading fashion design
er in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, best known as "Lucile", her professional name. The first British
designer to achieve international renown, Lucile 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, pared-down lingerie. She opened branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Paris
, New York City
, and Chicago
, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities. Lucy Duff Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS 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.
, Ontario
, Canada
, after her father's death of typhoid fever. When her mother remarried in 1871 to 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. 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.
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 Dr. Sir Morell Mackenzie. The Wallaces separated in about 1890, and were divorced in 1893. In order to support herself and her daughter, Lucy began working as a dressmaker from home. By 1894 she had opened Maison Lucile in Old Burlington St, in the heart of the fashionable West End of London
. In 1897 a larger shop was opened at 17 Hanover Square, before a further move (c. 1901–04) to 14 George St. In 1903 the business was incorporated as "Lucile, Ltd" and the following year moved to 23 Hanover Square. In 1900 Lucile married Scottish landowner and sportsman Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon.
Lucile Ltd served a wealthy clientele including aristocracy, royalty, and theatre stars. The business expanded with branches opening in New York City, Paris, and Chicago in 1910, 1911, and 1915 respectively.
Lucile was most famous for her lingerie
, tea gown
s, and evening wear
. The gown illustrated at right typifies a classically draped style often found in Lucile designs. It was designed in Paris for the spring 1913 collection.
She is also widely credited with training the first professional fashion model
s (called mannequins) as well as staging the first runway or "catwalk" style shows. 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 were 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.
The designer was especially noted for luxurious layered and draped garments in soft fabrics of blended pastel colours, often accentuated with sprays of hand-made silk flowers, which became a hallmark of her work. However, Lucile also created simple, smart tailor
ed suits
and daywear.
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 many 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). 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. 1917–1919).
Lucile also wrote a weekly syndicated fashion page for the Hearst
newspaper syndicate (1910–22), and monthly columns for Harper's Bazaar
and Good Housekeeping
magazines (1912–22).
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. 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).
and began to sink. During the evacuation the Duff Gordons and Franks escaped in Lifeboat 1. Although the boat was built to hold forty people, it was lowered with just twelve – most of them crewmen.
Some time after the ship sank, while afloat in boat 1, Lucile reportedly commented to her secretary, "There is your beautiful nightdress gone." 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 then offered each of the men £5 to assist them until they received new assignments. While on the RMS Carpathia
, the Cunard
liner that rescued Titanics survivors, Cosmo presented the men from Lifeboat 1 with checks drawn on his bank in London, Coutts. Later this action spawned gossip that the Duff Gordons bribed the crew in their boat not to return to save swimmers out of fear it would be swamped.
These rumours were fuelled by the tabloid press in the United States and, eventually, in the United Kingdom. On 17 May, Cosmo Duff Gordon testified in London at the hearings of the British Board of Trade
Inquiry into the disaster and on 20 May Lucile took the stand. Their testimony attracted the largest crowds during the inquiry.
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, and could not recall specific conversations. Attorneys did not seem to have pressed her very hard. 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.
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.
A faded silk kimono
with black cord edging, for some time thought to have been worn by Lucile as she escaped the Titanic, is now believed 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, following the closure of Fortuny's factory, and the confiscation of its equipment. It reopened in 1919 with new, more commercial designs. A letter written by Lucile does reveal that although she wore a lavender kimono-style bathrobe with similar black piping, it was a partially-made garment 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. 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. The Lusitania was destroyed by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915.
case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
, in which Judge 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:
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.
Lucile also continued as a fashion columnist and critic after her design career ended, 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. The date of her death, 20 April, was the fourth anniversary of her husband's death.
, 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 costumes 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 Fashion Institute of Technology
's "Designing the It Girl: Lucile and Her Style" (2005)
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London published Lucile Ltd by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes in June 2009.
Fashion design
Fashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....
er in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, best known as "Lucile", her professional name. The first British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
designer to achieve international renown, Lucile was a widely-acknowledged innovator in couture
Haute couture
Haute couture refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is made to order for a specific customer, and it is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable seamstresses,...
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, pared-down lingerie. She opened branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities. Lucy Duff Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and as the losing party
Party (law)
A party is a person or group of persons that compose a single entity which can be identified as one for the purposes of the law. Parties include: plaintiff , defendant , petitioner , respondent , cross-complainant A party is a person or group of persons that compose a single entity which can be...
in the precedent-setting 1917 contract law
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
case
Legal case
A legal case is a dispute between opposing parties resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case may be either civil or criminal...
of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, 222 N.Y. 88, 118 N.E. 214 , is a New York state contract case in which the New York Court of Appeals held Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, to a contract that assigned the sole right to market her name to her advertising agent....
, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo
Benjamin N. Cardozo
Benjamin Nathan Cardozo was a well-known American lawyer and associate Supreme Court Justice. Cardozo is remembered for his significant influence on the development of American common law in the 20th century, in addition to his modesty, philosophy, and vivid prose style...
wrote the opinion for New York's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals.
Career
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 GuelphGuelph
Guelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, after her father's death of typhoid fever. When her mother remarried in 1871 to bachelor David Kennedy (d. 1889) she moved with them and her sister, the future novelist Elinor Glyn
Elinor Glyn
Elinor Glyn , born Elinor Sutherland, was a British novelist and scriptwriter who pioneered mass-market women's erotic fiction. She popularized the concept It...
, to Saint Helier
Saint Helier
Saint Helier is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St. Helier has a population of about 28,000, roughly 31.2% of the total population of Jersey, and is the capital of the Island . The urban area of the parish of St...
on the Isle of Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
. 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. 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.
In 1884 Lucy married James Stuart Wallace, with whom she had a child, Esme (1885–1973) (later wife of the 2nd Earl of Halsbury
Earl of Halsbury
Earl of Halsbury, in the County of Devon, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1898 for the lawyer and Conservative politician Hardinge Giffard, 1st Baron Halsbury. He was Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1886, 1886 to 1892 and 1895 to 1905...
and mother of Anthony, 3rd Earl of Halsbury
John Giffard, 3rd Earl of Halsbury
John Anthony Hardinge Giffard 3rd Earl of Halsbury FRS, British peer and scientist, succeeded to the title in 1943. He was Managing Director of the National Research Development Corporation 1949–1959, after having been Director of Research of Decca Record Company 1947–1949, and previously worked...
). An alcoholic, Wallace was regularly unfaithful, and Lucy sought consolation in love affairs, including a long relationship with Dr. Sir Morell Mackenzie. The Wallaces separated in about 1890, and were divorced in 1893. In order to support herself and her daughter, Lucy began working as a dressmaker from home. By 1894 she had opened Maison Lucile in Old Burlington St, in the heart of the fashionable West End of London
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
. In 1897 a larger shop was opened at 17 Hanover Square, before a further move (c. 1901–04) to 14 George St. In 1903 the business was incorporated as "Lucile, Ltd" and the following year moved to 23 Hanover Square. In 1900 Lucile married Scottish landowner and sportsman Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon.
Lucile Ltd served a wealthy clientele including aristocracy, royalty, and theatre stars. The business expanded with branches opening in New York City, Paris, and Chicago in 1910, 1911, and 1915 respectively.
Lucile was most famous for her lingerie
Lingerie
Lingerie are fashionable and possibly alluring undergarments.Lingerie usually incorporates one or more flexible, stretchy materials like Lycra, nylon , polyester, satin, lace, silk and sheer fabric which are not typically used in more functional, basic cotton undergarments.The term in the French...
, tea gown
Tea gown
A tea gown or tea-gown is a woman's at-home dress for informal entertaining of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries characterized by unstructured lines and light fabrics. Early tea gowns were a European development influenced by Asian clothing, part of the japonism of Aesthetic dress...
s, and evening wear
Evening gown
An evening gown is a long flowing women's dress usually worn to a formal affair. It ranges from tea and ballerina to full-length. Evening gowns are often made of a luxury fabric such as chiffon, velvet, satin, or silk...
. The gown illustrated at right typifies a classically draped style often found in Lucile designs. It was designed in Paris for the spring 1913 collection.
She is also widely credited with training the first professional fashion model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
s (called mannequins) as well as staging the first runway or "catwalk" style shows. 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 were 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.
The designer was especially noted for luxurious layered and draped garments in soft fabrics of blended pastel colours, often accentuated with sprays of hand-made silk flowers, which became a hallmark of her work. However, Lucile also created simple, smart tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
ed suits
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
and daywear.
Some well-known clients, whose clothing influenced many when it appeared in early films, on stage, and in the press, included: Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle was born William Vernon Blyth in Norwich, Norfolk, England...
, Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie
Lily Elsie was a popular English actress and singer during the Edwardian era, best known for her starring role in the hit London premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow....
, Gertie Millar
Gertie Millar
Gertrude "Gertie" Millar was one of the most famous English singer-actresses of the early 20th century, known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies....
, Gaby Deslys
Gaby Deslys
Gaby Deslys was a dancer, singer, and actress of the early 20th century from Marseilles, France. She selected her name for her stage career. It is an abbreviation of Gabrielle of the Lillies. During the 1910s she was exceedingly popular worldwide, making $4,000 a week in the United States alone...
, Billie Burke
Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
, and Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
. Lucile costumed many theatrical productions including the London première of Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár
Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
's operetta The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
(1907), the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
revues on Broadway (1915–21), and the D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
silent movie Way Down East (1920). Her fashions were also frequently featured in Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
and Gaumont
Gaumont Film Company
Gaumont Film Company is a French film production company founded in 1895 by the engineer-turned-inventor, Léon Gaumont . Gaumont is the oldest continously operating film company in the world....
newsreels of the 1910s and 20s, and she appeared in her own weekly spot in the British newsreel "Around the Town" (c. 1917–1919).
Lucile also wrote a weekly syndicated fashion page for the Hearst
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
newspaper syndicate (1910–22), and monthly columns for Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
and Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
magazines (1912–22).
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. 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
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
(1917).
RMS Titanic
In 1912, Lucile travelled to America on business in connection with the New York branch of her salon. She and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, booked first class passage on the ocean liner RMS Titanic under the names 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. On 14 April, at 11:40 pm the Titanic struck an icebergIceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
and began to sink. During the evacuation the Duff Gordons and Franks escaped in Lifeboat 1. Although the boat was built to hold forty people, it was lowered with just twelve – most of them crewmen.
Some time after the ship sank, while afloat in boat 1, Lucile reportedly commented to her secretary, "There is your beautiful nightdress gone." 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 then offered each of the men £5 to assist them until they received new assignments. While on the RMS Carpathia
RMS Carpathia
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...
, the Cunard
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
liner that rescued Titanics survivors, Cosmo presented the men from Lifeboat 1 with checks drawn on his bank in London, Coutts. Later this action spawned gossip that the Duff Gordons bribed the crew in their boat not to return to save swimmers out of fear it would be swamped.
These rumours were fuelled by the tabloid press in the United States and, eventually, in the United Kingdom. On 17 May, Cosmo Duff Gordon testified in London at the hearings of the British Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
Inquiry into the disaster and on 20 May Lucile took the stand. Their testimony attracted the largest crowds during the inquiry.
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, and could not recall specific conversations. Attorneys did not seem to have pressed her very hard. Lucile noted that for the rest of her husband's life he was broken-hearted over the negative coverage by the "yellow press
Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism...
" 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.
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
William MacQuitty
William MacQuitty was a British film producer and also a writer and photographer. He is most noted for his production of the 1958 Rank Organisation / Pinewood Studios film, A Night to Remember, which recreates the story of the sinking of RMS Titanic, based on the book of the same name by Walter...
, and again by Rosalind Ayres
Rosalind Ayres
Rosalind Ayres is an English actress. Active since 1970, Ayres may be best known by a wide audience for her role was in the 1997 film Titanic, in which she played Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon....
in James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
's 1997 blockbuster Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
. In the latter film the role of Lucile's husband Cosmo was portrayed by the actress' own husband, Martin Jarvis.
A faded silk kimono
Kimono
The is a Japanese traditional garment worn by men, women and children. The word "kimono", which literally means a "thing to wear" , has come to denote these full-length robes...
with black cord edging, for some time thought to have been worn by Lucile as she escaped the Titanic, is now believed to have belonged to her daughter Esme, Countess of Halsbury. The distinctive print on that garment, designed by Mariano Fortuny
Mariano Fortuny (designer)
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, , son of the painter Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, was a Spanish fashion designer who opened his couture house in 1906 and continued until 1946.- Life :...
, dates the item to post World War One, following the closure of Fortuny's factory, and the confiscation of its equipment. It reopened in 1919 with new, more commercial designs. A letter written by Lucile does reveal that although she wore a lavender kimono-style bathrobe with similar black piping, it was a partially-made garment 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. An apron said to have been worn by Lucile's secretary, Laura Francatelli, can be seen at the Maritime Museum
Maritime museum
A maritime museum is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water...
in Liverpool, and her life-jacket was sold, along with correspondence about her experiences in the disaster, at Christie's
Christie's
Christie's is an art business and a fine arts auction house.- History :The official company literature states that founder James Christie conducted the first sale in London, England, on 5 December 1766, and the earliest auction catalogue the company retains is from December 1766...
, London, in 2007.
Lucile had another close call three years after surviving the Titanic when she booked passage aboard the RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
on its last voyage. It was reported in the press that she cancelled her trip due to illness. The Lusitania was destroyed by a German torpedo on 7 May 1915.
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
In 1917, Lucile lost the New York Court of AppealsNew York Court of Appeals
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the U.S. state of New York. The Court of Appeals consists of seven judges: the Chief Judge and six associate judges who are appointed by the Governor to 14-year terms...
case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, 222 N.Y. 88, 118 N.E. 214 , is a New York state contract case in which the New York Court of Appeals held Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, to a contract that assigned the sole right to market her name to her advertising agent....
, in which Judge 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:
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.
Later life and death
Lucile's connection with her design empire began to disintegrate following a restructuring of Lucile, Ltd in 1918–19, and by September 1922 she had ceased designing for the company, which gradually diminished in success after her departure. Meanwhile, its founder (who continued to be known as Lucile) worked from private premises designing personally for individual clients. She was briefly associated with the firm of Reville, Ltd., maintained a ready-to-wear shop of her own and lent her name to a wholesale operation in America.Lucile also continued as a fashion columnist and critic after her design career ended, and she penned her best-selling autobiography Discretions and Indiscretions in 1932. She died of breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
, complicated by pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, in a Putney
Putney
Putney is a district in south-west London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
, London nursing home in 1935 at the age of 71. The date of her death, 20 April, was the fourth anniversary of her husband's death.
Legacy
Lucile's former assistant, Howard GreerHoward Greer
Howard Greer was a Hollywood fashion designer and a costume designer in the Golden Age of American cinema....
, 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
Euphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
"it" to denote sexuality or "sex appeal."
A number of international museum exhibitions have featured Lucile costumes in recent years, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
's "Cubism and Fashion" (1999), the Museum of the City of New York
Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York is an art gallery and history museum founded in 1923 to present the history of New York City, USA and its people...
's "Fashion on Stage" (1999) and the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
'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 Fashion Institute of Technology
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...
's "Designing the It Girl: Lucile and Her Style" (2005)
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London published Lucile Ltd by Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes in June 2009.
Titles
- 1863–1884: Miss Lucy Christiana Sutherland
- 1884–1900: Mrs. James Stuart Wallace
- 1900–1935: Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon