Lucy Duff Gordon, a free-spirited couturière erased by history
Long ReadHer name has faded into obscurity. Yet she was a renowned British couturière at the dawn of the 20th century, famous for her tea gowns designed to be worn without a corset. A truly extraordinary personality, she led a tumultuous life, even counting among the survivors of the Titanic in April 1912.
When Lucy Duff Gordon, the couturière celebrated for her romantic label Lucile, and her husband, Cosmo, arrived at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York on April 18, 1912, three days after the Titanic disaster, they received a warm welcome. Their suite overflowed with flowers and freshly prepared clothes. "At dinner that night we were all very gay, and drank champagne," she recalled in her memoir Discretions and Indiscretions (1932). It was a fleeting moment of carefreeness after the ordeal. But when they returned to London a few days later, the headlines blared: "Duff Gordon Scandal." Newsboys called out to them without recognizing them: "Read about the Titanic cowards!"
Readers had already learned that the couple had managed to escape early from the ship – whose sinking continues to fascinate, even 113 years later, as shown by the release in April of National Geographic's documentary The Invisible Story of the Titanic. At around 1:15 am, on the night of April 14, 1912, the Duff Gordons boarded lifeboat no. 1. They fled the sinking liner alongside 10 other people, including their maid, Laura Mabel Francatelli – nicknamed "Franks" – on a craft designed to hold 40. The tabloids railed it as "the millionaires' boat." Two committees of inquiry were established in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
This infamous episode was only one of many twists and turns in the eventful life of Duff Gordon, one of the most celebrated couturières at the turn of the 20th century. Yet, as 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of her death, who remembers this pioneer who, as The New York Times wrote in 1916, "was the greatest living authority on how the fair sex should be robed"? Her most famous contemporaries and rivals are the subject of major exhibitions in Paris: Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895) at the Petit Palais, until September 7, and Paul Poiret (1879-1944) at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, until January 11, 2026. Duff Gordon, however, has fallen into oblivion.
You have 82.32% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.