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Esme was now Viscountess Tiverton and Lucy was a grand-mother twice over but while she continued to give Esme financial support, her business took most of her attention. She bagged another high-publicity client, Irene Castle, dancer, stage star and style icon. She opened a new store in Chicago and on top of turning out two collections a year there and in New York also began designing for the Ziegfeld Follies.
The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York also has an online collection of designs and photographs, mainly from the latter part of her career. Interestingly, they signed onto the ship under the alias Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.
What happened on the night of the sinking?
On the fateful night of April 14-15, 1912, Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff-Gordon approached First Officer William McMaster Murdoch, who was overseeing the loading of Emergency Lifeboat 1.
Up until now Elinor had been the writer in the family, famed for her scandalous 1907 book, Three Weeks, but now it was Lucy picking up the pen as William Hearst recruited her as a fashion columnist, another industry first.
With New York conquered, Paris was next. Lucy sounded out friends across the Channel about setting up business there and they thought she was over-reaching, throwing ‘a douche of cold water over my enthusiasm.’ She was undeterred.
Francatelli: Cabin E-36
What was Lady Duff Gordon’s experience on the Titanic?
Lady Duff Gordon was initially enchanted by the luxury of the Titanic. But in August 1914, the music stopped as the war was finally declared after a summer of speculation.
As a first-class passenger, his experience during the disaster and subsequent controversy made him a notable figure in Titanic history.
Who was Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff Gordon?
Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff Gordon was born on July 22, 1862, to Cosmo Lewis Duff-Gordon and Anna Maria Antrobus. But Lucy deserves much more recognition for the way she married fashion and performance, which contributed to the longevity of her career and resulted in enduring change in the way clothes are sold and marketed.
When her step-father died in 1889, Lucy’s mother and sister re-located to London and took a house in an unfashionable part of Mayfair. Lucy and James moved in but their marriage continued to disintegrate and in April 1892, James left her, showing a predictable lack of originality by running off with a chorus girl.
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All her attempts to start over in fashion, whether designing and making clothes at home or setting up another shop, failed but she continued working, shoring up her dwindling income by touring the country as a fashion agony aunt, endorsing brands and writing her memoirs. Lucy died on 17th April 1935 at the age of 73 from breast cancer, with her sister and her grandson at her side.
Now the woman once mentioned in the same breath as Worth, Lanvin and Poiret has a much lower profile.
Sources include:
The Queen, 02/06/1894; The Queen 2/6/1894; ‘The Madness of Clothes’ by Marie Corelli in The Bystander 27/07/1904; Vogue 1910; Women’s Wear Daily 23/8/1910; Vogue 15/6/1911; Women’s Wear Daily 31/5/1911; The Tatler, 31/7/1912;Women’s Wear Daily 24/3/1917; Women’s Wear Daily 4/6/1918; Women’s Wear Daily 19/9/1919; Women’s Wear Daily 06/06/1921; Pall Mall Gazette 14/2/1923; Staffordshire Advertiser 5/4/1924; The Times 25/09/35
‘Discretions and Indiscretions’ by Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon (1932); ‘Romantic Adventure’ by Elinor Glyn (1942); ‘Memories and Base Details’ by Lady Angela Forbes (1922); ‘To Tell My Story’ by Irene Vanbrugh (1948); ‘Castles in the Air’ by Irene Castle (1958); ‘The Glass of Fashion’ by Cecil Beaton (1954)
‘The It Girls’ by Meredith Etherington-Smith and Jeremy Pilcher (1996); ‘Lucile Ltd: London, Paris, New York and Chicago 1890s-1930s’ by Valerie D Mendes and Amy de la Haye (2009); ‘Theatre and Fashion: Oscar Wilde to the Suffragettes’ by Joel H Kaplan and Sheila Stowell (1994) P.39-50; Designing Lucile Ltd: Couture and the Modern Interior 1900-1920s’ by Samantha Erin Safer in Performance, Fashion and the Modern Interior ed.
Lucy banished these undergarments – nothing was going to detract attention from her ‘Studies in the Expression of Personality in Curves and Colours’ – created a complete staged performance with music, lights and a programme and threw her salon doors open to men. This episode was set in 1920, when Lucy still had some cachet, but her star was waning.
In June 1921, the Chicago business folded.
A ‘Saturday to Monday’ stay in the country filled a trunkful of clothes.
Weddings were also big business for dress-makers and an immediate opportunity presented itself close to home. In need of funds, she sold Otis Wood, an advertising agent, the exclusive right to use her name for endorsements and licensing deals, agreeing to split the revenues and profits.
She made the boning and corsetry lighter, later removing them altogether, and put splits into otherwise-restrictive skirts. Aside from materials and rent, her overheads included an ever-expanding team of dressmakers, fitters and sales staff. Wealthy customers were not necessarily speedy payers and women expected help from their dressmakers in managing their different financial situations.
The death of Queen Victoria in 1901 brought a social shake up and more business opportunity. Afternoon drawing rooms gave way to more glamorous evening courts and the new King set a punishing pace for his courtiers (and their wardrobes) with a full evening schedule and a hectic summer season. At 1:10 am, Lifeboat 1 was lowered with only 12 people aboard, including 7 crew members.
Controversy and Aftermath
The Lifeboat Incident
After the sinking, a debate arose among the lifeboat occupants about returning to rescue swimmers.
Then the boat stopped.
Lady Duff Gordon and her husband were among the fortunate few to survive the disaster.