page_title: Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon
section_title: Fashion career
hierarchical_section_title: Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon / Fashion career
caption_attribution_description: English: Styles of Lucy as presented in a vaudeville circuit pantomime and sketched by Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in April 1918.
context_page_description: Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile.
  The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In addition to originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.
  Opening branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, her business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities. 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.
context_section_description: In order to support herself and her daughter after the end of her first marriage, Lucy Duff-Gordon 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. In 1897, Lucy Duff-Gordon opened a larger shop at 17 Hanover Square, Westminster, before a further move (c. 1903–04) to 14 George Street, Oxford. 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. Duff Gordon was eventually bankrupted after she revealed in the American press that she was not designing  much of the clothing that was attributed to her name. She spent her later years selling imported clothing and smaller collections in a succession of unsuccessful small 'boutiques'.
  Lucile Ltd served a wealthy clientele including aristocracy, royalty, and theatre stars. The business expanded, with salons opening in New York City in 1910, Paris in 1911, and Chicago in 1915, making it the first leading couture house with full-scale branches in three countries.
  Lucile was most famous for its lingerie, tea gowns, and evening wear. Its luxuriously layered and draped garments in soft fabrics of blended pastel colors, often accentuated with sprays of hand-made silk flowers, became its hallmark. However, Lucile also offered simple, smart tailored suits and daywear. The dress illustrated at right typifies the classically draped style often found in Lucile designs. Lucy Duff-Gordon originally designed it in Paris, for Lucile Ltd's spring 1913 collection, and later specially adapted it 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.
  Lucy Duff-Gordon is also widely credited with training the first professional fashion models (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 was what she called her "emotional gowns". These dresses were given descriptive names, influenced by literature, history, popular culture and her interest in the psychology and personality of her clients.
  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). Lucile creations were also frequently featured in Pathé and Gaumont newsreels of the 1910s and 20s, and Lucy Duff-Gordon appeared in her own weekly spot in the British newsreel "Around the Town" (c. 1919–21).
  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 her 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, Lucy Duff-Gordon 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 and signed "Lucile",  though occasionally the signature of the artist, such as Molyneux, appeared. It was general practice for couture houses to use profe
caption: Styles of Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, as presented in a vaudeville circuit pantomime and sketched by Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in April 1918
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