|
DISCRETIONS & INDISCRETIONS
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Fame-hungry, fast-living and the subject of a whole series of scandals, Lady Duff-Gordon was THE fashion designer of the belle époque THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
This 2018 Spitfire Publishers reset edition also includes Lady Duff-Gordon British TITANIC inquiry testimony. Lucy Duff-Gordon was one of the original It girls and the leading fashion designer and of the Edwardian era. Her infamous House of Lucile was one of the first global fashion brands and created plunging neck lines, slit skirts and trained the first professional models. But for all her achievements and accolades she is perhaps destined to be remembered for her and her husband’s role in the TITANIC tragedy of 14/15 April 1912 which they escaped in the notorious millionaire’s boat, lifeboat No. 1. With a capacity of forty people, it was launched with only twelve aboard, the fewest to escape in any single lifeboat that night. Sir Cosmo later paid the crew members £5 each, (ostensibly to replace their lost kit and wages), a gesture interpreted by some as blood money for giving the male aristocrat a place on a lifeboat. One of Lucy’s motivations for writing her book was to attempt to finally clear her husband’s name, devoting three chapters to the sinking and their subsequent public vilification in the press.
About the Author :
Single mother.
In her own words, the story of a remarkable woman who built an international fashion empire, survived the sinking of the Titanic, and invented the catwalk show. Left a near-penniless single mother and divorcée by the collapse of her first marriage, Lucile Duff Gordon began her fashion career cutting out dresses on the floor of her house and ended it as proprietor of Maison Lucile, an internationally famous brand of its day and featured in the TV series Downton Abbey. Now all but forgotten, she invented the catwalk show, diffusion lines for department stores, and the cult of the professional model, taking young women from anonymity in the suburbs of London to international stardom. She designed theatrical costumes for the stars of the day, wrote a fashion column, and became confidante to the famous names of her day on both sides of the Atlantic – and yet she is now known principally for the scandal surrounding her escape from the Titanic in an almost empty lifeboat. Formerly published as Discretions and Indiscretions in 1932, Lucile’s autobiography is reissued on the centennial commemoration of the Titanic disaster with a foreword by her great-great-granddaughter Camilla Blois. A Woman of Temperament is a fascinating glimpse into a remarkable woman, the vanished, glittering world she moved in, and the birth of modern fashion. |
 |
|