Lucile

Fast, Lucy Duff-Gordon would have gone down with the Titanic in 1912, becoming one of the most successful fashion designers of her time. However, Lucy Duff-Gordon survived the disaster, and thus the fabulous career of "Lucile" continued. She began in 1893 when the 30-year-old, freshly divorced and nearly broke, designed her first dresses for her wealthy friends and sewed them in her mother's dining room in London. Within a few years, "Maison Lucile" rose to become an internationally renowned fashion brand. Lady Duff-Gordon dressed everyone—from actresses and queens to courtesans and ladies of high society on both sides of the Atlantic. The master of self-promotion invented the fashion show, designed theater and film costumes, experienced the Spanish flu and World War I. In 1932, Lucy Duff-Gordon recounted her fantastic, restless life—a glimpse into the splendor of the Edwardian era from the perspective of a remarkable woman.