I followed not a jot of news while I was in England, other than the toppling of the Saddam statue, which I happened to catch only on a department store TV screen. So I am learning this news just now of the passing away of Sir Hardy Amies.
It will be of interest to this board that Sir Hardy Amies was a protege of
Lady Duff Gordon. Amies came to know her only in her last days, after she had retired from couture, but through her influence, the young man gained some of his first positions in the garment industry. There was a less than amicable parting of the ways between the once-famous fashionista and the aspiring designer and he was not exactly kind to her in his first volume of memoirs, published in the 1950s.
I was in correspondence with Sir Hardy and his PR man, Peter Hope-Lumley (a nephew of Edward Molyneux, another Lucile alumna), over several years, beginning in 1993, following an introduction to the royal dressmaker by one of his clients, the late Dame Barbara Cartland, who had been, along with the late Queen Mother, among the last living Lucile customers.
To my knowledge, with Cartland's death in 1999, the Queen Mum's death last year, and now Amies' passing, there is no longer anyone else living who was associated professionally with
Lady Duff Gordon or her fashion house, Lucile, Ltd. In fact, as far as I am aware, there are only three people alive today who actually knew her.
I am saddened at the news of Amies' death and grateful to Kyrila and Shane for drawing my attention to this. My last contact with Amies was about seven years ago, through his devoted secretary Jan Burke. I was following up on his offer to share his last memories of his former patroness. The letter I received in reply, on his 14 Savile Row shop letterhead, referred to an aborted and fateful date with Lucile to a party to which he had promised to escort her. One can imagine that she was not one accustomed to being kept waiting:
"...Her Ladyship was not made happy by my tardiness. Upon my entering the room she did not move from her perch by a garden window, but remained seated. I apologized but she did not seem to hear me. To her maid, standing by, she communicated her desire not to go out for the evening. I was not allowed another word but was shown to the door. As I turned to go, I caught sight of her face. She looked utterly bereaved. I had no idea my lateness could have injured her so. I never saw her again."
I remember tonight a kind man and all his helpfulness to me.
Randy
