Lucy Duff-Gordon

Lucy Christiana, also known as Lady Duff-Gordon or Lucille (June 13th, 1863 - April 20th, 1935) was one of the most famous, best known First Class passengers of the *Titanic*. She and her husband, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, survived the sinking.

## Biography

Lucy Christiana Sutherland, was born on June 13th, 1863 as the daughter of Douglas Sutherland, a Toronto engineer. Her sister was Elinor Glyn, the writer. She would later write that she had been christened "Lucy Christiana" but that "all my intimate friends have known me as Christiana."

She soon moved to Canada, to the town of Guelph, Ontario, where she grew up. Lucy married James Stuart Wallace in 1884, with whom she had one child, Esme. She divorced again in 1890. James left Lucy and Esme alone, without money.

To still get some money, Lucy founded a business at home that focused on making dresses. After selling quite a few dresses, in 1894 she was able to rent a shop at 24 Old Burlington Street, London. She named her shop “Maison Lucile” and it became a great success. Each dress was made by hand and was unique in appearance. Lucy was soon nicknamed Lucile, from the name of her successful store.

In 1901, Lucille held the first theatrical fashion show in London - a fashion show with a stage and musical accompaniment.

Most of all she was known for models of wanton underwear and evening dresses. Among her clients were such stars as Mary Pickford, Billy Burke, Gaby Daslis, Gertie Millar and Lily Elsie. In addition, Lady Duff-Gordon modeled clothes for many theatrical productions, such as the operetta The Merry Widow (1907) and the Broadway shows The Ziegfeld Follies (1915-1921). Between 1910 and 1922, Lucy wrote fashion columns for Harper's Bazaar and Good Housekeeping.

She became one of the leading British fashion designers of the late 19th and early 20th century, known in the professional arena as Lucille. Branches of her prestigious London fashion house were opened in Paris, New York and Chicago. Lucy's clients increasingly consisted of theater and film stars, people of royal and noble descent and other people from high society. In 1910 she opened her first store in the United States, in New York. A store was also opened in Paris in 1911.

Lucy became known for her progressive approach in the fashion industry. She is credited with being the first to use mannequins to display her models. She was also the first to give fashion shows. Her shows could only be visited by invitation and took place in specially decorated sets, with matching lighting and music. These decors are seen as the first forms of the catwalk.

## On the *Titanic*

In her autobiography she related how she had not planned to sail on the *Titanic* but urgent business in New York forced her to take the first available ship. In order not to get too much attention from the press and potential fans, the Duff-Gordons decided to travel incognito, under the name Mr. and Mrs. Morgan. The Duff-Gordons boarded the RMS *Titanic* at Cherbourg. Accompanying them was Lady Duff-Gordon's maid, Laura Mabel Francatelli. Lady Duff-Gordon and Ms Francatelli travelled first class under the same ticket (#17485 which cost £56 18s 7d). Her husband Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon occupied cabin A-16, Lady Duff-Gordon was in cabin A-20 and Ms Francatelli was in E-36. The Duff-Gordons signed onto the ship as Mr and Mrs Morgan, a possible explanation being that they hoped to avoid publicity on landing in New York.

"*The first days of the crossing were uneventful. Like everyone else I was entranced by the beauty of the liner. I had never dreamed of sailing in such luxury ... my pretty little cabin, with its electric heater and pink curtains, delighted me, so that it was a pleasure to go to bed. Everything about this lovely ship reassured me.* *I remember that last meal on* Titanic *very well. We had a big vase of beautiful daffodils on the table, which were as fresh as if they had just been picked. Everyone was very gay, and at a neighbouring table people were making bets on the probable time of this record breaking run. Various opinions were put forward, but none dreamed that* Titanic *would make her harbour that night...* *I had been in bed for about an hour and the lights were all out, when I was awakened by a funny, rumbling noise. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. It seemed as if some giant hand had been playing bowls, rolling the great balls along. Then the boat stopped.*"
On April 14th at 11:40 P.M. the *Titanic* struck an iceberg 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 12 people in it—most of them crewmen.

Some time after the ship sank, while afloat in lifeboat 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. Sir 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 *Titanic*'s 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.

## Controversy

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 May 20th 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.

## Later Life and Death

Lucy's connection to her design empire began to disintegrate following a restructuring of Lucile, Ltd in 1918–19. An acrimonious battle emerged in the press, culminating in her public acknowledgement that many Lucile dresses were not designed by her. Lucy Duff-Gordon's autobiography acknowledges that this had been the case since at least 1911.

In November 1917, Lucy Duff-Gordon became embroiled in a famous court case when she decided to terminate the contract with her American agent who sold clothes and accessories under the contract on her behalf, but in the end the outcome of the case was not in her favor.

By September 1922, she had ceased designing for the company, which effectively closed. A completely new 'Lucile' was formed, using the same premises in Paris, and different designs, but it gradually failed. 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.

Lucy Duff-Gordon also continued as a fashion columnist and critic after her design career ended, contributing to London's *Daily Sketch* and *Daily Express* (1922–1930), and she penned her best-selling autobiography *Discretions and Indiscretions* (1932).

Lady Duff-Gordon died of breast cancer, complicated by pneumonia, in a Putney, London nursing home in 1935, aged 71. The date of her death, 20 April, was the fourth anniversary of her husband's death.