Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon, famous as "Lucile", was a top fashion designer
with a clientele of royalties, socialites and entertainment
celebrities. Her firm, "Lucile, Ltd," flourished from the turn of the
century into the early 1920s. Lady Duff Gordon is best remembered for
her work in the performing arts. She costumed the operetta "The Merry
Widow" on the London stage (1907), the "Ziegfeld Follies" revues
(1915-1921) on Broadway, and such early silent films as "The Perils of
Pauline" (1914) and "Way Down East" (1920). As a designer, she is
credited with staging the first runway shows, promoting romantic
lingerie and introducing the slit skirt. A sister of novelist/
screenwriter Elinor Glyn, Lady Duff Gordon was a survivor of the
"Titanic" disaster (1912).
