Conventioneers may want to visit sites connected to one of the most famous Titanic survivors, Lady Duff Gordon, who opened a Chicago branch of her fashion house "Lucile" in the fall of 1915. At that time 1400 Lake Shore Drive was a private residence, the former townhouse of a Col. McVeigh. It was located next door to one of Chicago’s social leaders, Mrs. Potter Palmer. The elegant house is long gone, and in its place there’s a high-rise apartment complex. I’ve been told it’s still a classy neighborhood, and that the apartment house is an Art Deco structure.
The other Chicago address connected to Lucile is the Blackstone Hotel on Michigan Avenue, her "home away from home" when she was in the city on business. She conducted formal interviews with local press from her suite, but reporters and photographers who didn’t have appointments used to wait in the lobby to catch her as she left the elevator. I’ve seen one news picture, taken of her in the Blackstone lobby, that shows her annoyance at being photographed without permission. She seems to be yelling at the cameraman!
Here are a few pictures of the Lucile salon in Chicago, taken at the time of the opening:
The faí§ade of 1400 Lake Shore Drive, showing clients arriving
The so-called "Rose Room" in the Chicago house of Lucile, where the designer’s famous lingerie was displayed
A model posing on the Rose Room mini-stage, wearing an intimate tea-gown and bed jacket