Hollywood costume designer Howard Greer
once had this to say about his old boss, Lady Duff Gordon
(born Lucy Sutherland, 1863 - 1935):
"...she was the first to introduce the French word chic into the English language, particularly in relation to fashion. She was the first dressmaker to employ mannequin parades (ie. models) in the showing of clothes...She was responsible for many fads and her clothes made many people famous. She was the most expensive dressmaker of her time, and the most aloof."
For a time, when Europe was embroiled in war, she impressed her sense of chic throughout the hinterlands of America in the Sears & Roebuck Catalog and in her illustrated spots that appeared in the Hearst papers; in the attached article, Lady Duff-Gordon lends her thoughts to the subject of ladies' evening wraps for the theater.
Lucile was one of the few souls to survive the TITANIC sinking; click here to read her account of that sad night.
•Read about the 1943 crochet revival•
From Amazon: Lucile: London, Paris, New York and Chicago
