Unsinkable Lucile

Before Chanel there was Lucile. She was one of the world’s most glamorous women and the most famous fashionista of the Edwardian age. Yet, couturiere Lucile, Lady Duff Gordon was born as just plain Lucy Sutherland and grew up in a stone farmhouse in Ontario, Canada. How she went from a backwoods farm to presiding over an international fashion empire is a remarkable story of unshakeable determination and female achievement at a time when it was thought that a woman’s place was in the home. Unsinkable Lucile is a lavishly illustrated story of Lucile’s lively childhood, her rise to the top of the fashion world and her survival of the Titanic disaster and its aftermath, during which she was unjustly vilified. Time and time again, she proved that nothing could sink her spirits or stop her drive to innovate and create. Among Lucile’s many innovations were the first fashion shows, the first fashion models and the Edwardian craze for oversized hats. She also helped free women from the corset and coined the word “chic.” Lucile was also a fashion adviser to millions and the creator of clothes seen in over 115 movies. Replete with historical photographs and beautiful painting by award-winning illustrator Laurie McGaw, Unsinkable Lucile is a humorous, touching and empowering tale of a woman who beat the odds, never backed down and changed the world of fashion forever.