Hi Mike,
"...apologies if this has been covered elsewhere here..."
Too funny! Yes, there are those who'd say Lucile has been covered a little too thoroughly on ET.
For online info on
Lucy Duff Gordon you might want to have your wife start right here by having a read through my ET Research Article on Lucile's career, accessible in PDF format from the homepage. It's an overview of my proposed book on her. Then she might want to check out Lucile's bio page here on ET which she can access also from the homepage by selecting her name from the passenger list. On that page she'll find info and pictures from my collection and links to my web site as well to others referencing Lucile.
Also on this message board under the "Gilded Age" topic, there's a lot of discussion about Lucile and other Edwardian designers under the subhead "THE Thread on Threads," one of the longest running features of the board.
As to books,
Lucy Duff Gordon wrote her autobiography "
Discretions and Indiscretions" (1932) and there's a more recent dual biography of her and her sister, novelist Elinor Glyn, called "The 'It' Girls" (1986). The latter book is good for familial and anecdotal data but isn't reliable on dates (and gives a very pedestrian treatment of her career).
Books on costume history that provide fairly accurate accounts of Lucile's influence include:
Carter, Ernestine, "The Changing World of Fashion: From 1900 to the Present," New York, Putnam's, 1977.
Dormer, Peter, ed. "The Illustrated Dictionary of 20th Century Designers: The Key Personalities in Design and the Applied Arts," New York: Mallard Press, 1991.
Ewing, Elizabeth, "History of 20th Century Fashion," New York: Barnes and Noble Books (3rd ed.), 1992.
Kennett, Frances, "The Collectors' Book of Fashion," New York: Crown, 1983.
McDowell, Colin, "McDowell's Directory of 20th Century Fashion," Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1985.
Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, "Couture: The Great Designers," New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1985.
If there's anything I can help her with, I'll be glad to. I've helped several design students with their dissertations on Lucile. If she needs images, I have some she can use. Have her contact me at
[email protected] if she wants.
Best wishes to you both,
Randy
