In the early 20th century, Lucile, Lady Duff Gordon (1863-1935), was an international fashion sensation. She created some of the most lavish, provocative, and controversial fashions of the Edwardian era, lingerie, tea-gowns and evening-wear that attracted famous beauties like Lillie Langtry and Mary Pickford. A flamboyant and eccentric character who survived the sinking of the Titanic, wrote a column for Hearst newspapers, and designed costumes for the Ziegfeld Follies, Lucile also trained the first professional fashion models, staged the first runway shows, and introduced revolutionary elements to women’s dress such as lower necklines, slit skirts, and less-restrictive corsets.
This fascinating and long-overdue study of Lucile’s work includes a remarkable facsimile of her Fall 1905 fashion album, printed on special paper, and featuring over 60 watercolor illustrations and reproductions of luxurious fabric samples and trimmings. The book also draws on Lucile’s own autobiography, Discretions and Indiscretions, a captivating window into the rarefied world of high Edwardian society and the extraordinary mind of one its most notable characters.
Lucile: London, Paris, New York and Chicago
Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at
2:42 am
Product Description
Anna Quindlen first visited London from a chair in her suburban Philadelphia home—in one of her beloved childhood mystery novels. She has been back to London countless times since, through the pages of books and in person, and now, in Imagined London, she takes her own readers on a tour of this greatest of literary cities.
While New York, Paris, and Dublin are also vividly portrayed in fiction, it is London, Quindlen argues, that has always been the star, both because of the primacy of English literature and the specificity of city descriptions. She bases her view of the city on her own detailed literary map, tracking the footsteps of her favorite characters: the places where Evelyn Waugh’s bright young things danced until dawn, or where Lydia Bennett eloped with the dastardly Wickham.
In Imagined London, Quindlen walks through the city, moving within blocks from the great books of the 19th century to the detective novels of the 20th to the new modernist tradition of the 21st. With wit and charm, Imagined London gives this splendid city its full due in the landscape of the literary imagination.
Praise for Imagined London:
“Shows just how much a reading experience can enrich a physical journey.” —New York Times Book Review
“An elegant new work of nonfiction… People will be inspired by this book.” —Ann Curry, Today
“An affectionate, richly allusive tribute to the city.” —Kirkus Reviews
Imagined London: A Tour of the World’s Greatest Fictional City
