Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon

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Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon : biography

13 June 1863 – 20 April 1935

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."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. 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 Appeals 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.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

Early life

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 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.Duff Gordon, Lucy, Discretions and Indiscretions(1932), 6,9,17; Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure(1936), 47 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.Glyn, Elinor, Romantic Adventure, 27–28

Footnotes

Fashion career

In order to support herself and her daughter after the end of her first marriage, 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."At the Shops: Modes at the Maison Lucile," Hearth and Home, 4 January 1894 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.

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."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

Lucile was most famous for her lingerie, tea gowns, 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.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. Published design included beading, lost or omitted from this example.