Silk and fur dance dress, probably Lucile Ltd., 1939. Gift of Irene Castle.

(source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Dinner Dress, detail, by Design House Lucile Ltd., New York, Designer Lucy Christina, Lady Duff Gordon, 1918.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1916 Woman's "Happiness" dinner dress by Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon (Label Lucile Ltd., New York)

silk taffeta, satin, tulle, and chiffon with lace, lace insets and appliqué, ribbons, and silk flowers

(Philadelphia Museum of Art)

Lucile evening dress ca. 1910.

This evening dress from the Lucile Ltd. was inspired by kimono, having a kimono-style sleeve without a shaped armhole and an obi-like sash. This dress is a typical example of what French fashion magazines of the day called “Forme Japonaise” in reference to the shapes of kimono worn by beauties depicted in ukiyo-e prints. Margaret Augusta Daly Brown [1873–1911]—the daughter of the American millionaire Marcus Daly, known as one of the “Copper Mine Kings”—wore this dress. She married the Baltimore banker Henry Caroll Brown and commuted back and forth between the society scenes in that city and New York. This dress is said to be part of the collection that marked the 1910 opening of the New York branch of the Lucile Ltd. couture house.

old years blow back like a wind

I am running into a new year and the old years blow back like a wind that I catch in my hair like strong fingers like all my old promises —  Lucille Clifton, from “I am running into a new year” in Good Woman: Poems and A Memoir 1969-1980 (BOA Editions Ltd., April 17, 2014) (via see more)

F1 Drivers as Poems Day 17/22—Lewis Hamilton—“i am not done yet,” Lucille Clifton 🛣️

“a changed changer i continue to continue what i have been”

Alt text for Photo 1: A photo of Lewis Hamilton, a late-30s Black Formula 1 racer with braids, a beard, silver earrings and a neck tattoo wearing a black Mercedes mockneck shirt, standing in front of a large video screen bearing his face in blues and greens. Blue and teal graphics resembling minimalistic roads or rivers wind inward from the top left and bottom right corners. Thin, teal sans serif text in all caps reads “Lewis Hamilton” in the top right corner.

Alt text for Photo 2: A text-based graphic on a deep teal background with the same road or river graphics and driver’s name. Aqua-colored serif text in the middle reads: “a collection of safe habits / a collection of cares / less certain than i seem / more certain than i was / a changed changer / i continue to continue / what i have been / most of my lives is / where i’m going.” Thin, teal sans serif text in all caps beneath the poem reads “—Lucille Clifton, “i am not done yet”.”

Photo from Motorsport Images via Autosport

Poem: “i am not done yet” by Lucille Clifton from Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 (BOA Editions Ltd., 1987) via Only To Grow

Made with Canva

the lost baby poem

By Lucille Clifton

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Forward to a Friend the time i dropped your almost body down down to meet the waters under the city and run one with the sewage to the sea what did i know about waters rushing back what did i know about drowning or being drowned

you would have been born into winter in the year of the disconnected gas and no car we would have made the thin walk over genesee hill into the canada wind to watch you slip like ice into strangers’ hands you would have fallen naked as snow into winter if you were here i could tell you these and some other things

if i am ever less than a mountain for your definite brothers and sisters let the rivers pour over my head let the sea take me for a spiller of seas let black men call me stranger always for your never named sake

A Note from the Editor

Lucille Clifton was born in 1936. “Sometimes we cannot mother the souls that choose us. Our choices often revolve around resource, but love is continuous.” - Guest Editor Emily Hooper Lansana

Lucille Clifton, “the lost baby poem” from good woman: poems and a memoir, 1969-1980. Copyright © 1987 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted by permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.

Source: good woman: poems and a memoir 1969-1980 ( BOA Editions Ltd., 1987 )

Thanks..Cecile and Lucile -Sales& Marketing Director from Serengeti Big Cats ltd for visiting us and spend your Full day with us.

#kilicoffeetourorganicoriginorganized #hottraditionallunch

#MateruniWaterfall

Looking forward for your bookings..🙏Karibu sana

Lucile dress, identical to one worn by Lily Elsie ca. 1909

Tea gown by Lucile, Les Modes December 1922. Photo by Rahma.

Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon- Fashion Designer and Titanic Survivor

Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon was born Lucy Christiana in London on June 13, 1863. She became one of England”s most prominent fashion designers in the 19th and early part of the 20th century.

Lucy married James Stuart Wallace in 1885 and the couple had one child. Unfortunately, the marriage was not a happy one as Wallace was unfaithful and a heavy drinker. They separated and were divorced in 1900. To support herself and her daughter, Lucy started a dressmaking business in her home.

Her company, Lucile Ltd, catered to the wealthy clientele in London and grew as she opened up salons in New York, Paris, and Chicago. Her designs were the first in popularizing lower necklines and less restricting dress for women of the time. Lucile Ltd was most known for its lingerie and evening wear line.

Lucy Duff-Gordon is also considered the first designer to develop the “runway” concept where fashion models walked down a “catwalk” stage in theatrical performances.

Besides being well known for her fashion accomplishments, Lucy is also remembered for being one of the first class survivors on the RMS Titanic as well. Traveling for business to New York, Lucy’s husband, Scottish baronet, Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon., whom she married in 1900, booked them a first class passage on the unsinkable ship. He checked them in under the alias, “Mr. and Mrs. Morgan.

As luck would have it, on the night of the sinking, the couple would be put in the first lifeboat to evacuate the ship. It left with only 12 survivors on it and Sir Cosmo Gordon would be one of the few first class men to be given a spot with the women survivors. His reputation, however, would suffer, as he and Lucy were subject to cross-examination of their testimony during the Titanic inquiry.

By September of 1922, Lucy Duff-Gordon stopped designing for Lucile Ltd and the company closed soon after. She died in 1935, at the age of 71, from breast cancer, in London.

the coming of fox one evening i return to a red fox haunched by my door. i am afraid although she knows no enemy comes here. next night again then next then next she sits in her safe shadow silent as my skin bleeds into long bright flags of fur.

Lucille Clifton. How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton (American Poets Continuum Series) (p. 164). BOA Editions Ltd..

i am running into a new year

“i am running into a new year and the old years blow back like a wind that i catch in my hair like strong fingers like all my old promises and it will be hard to let go of what i said to myself about myself when i was sixteen and twentysix and thirtysix even thirtysix but i am running into a new year and i beg what i love and i leave to forgive me”

—Lucille Clifton, “i am running into a new year” in Good Woman: Poems and A Memoir 1969-1980 (BOA Editions Ltd.; November 1, 1987) (via Words for the Year)

         Reception or wedding dress attributed to Lucile, 1907-1910

       Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff-Gordon (June 13, 1863 – April 20, 1935) was a leading British fashion designer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked under the professional name Lucile.The first British-based designer to achieve international acclaim, Lucy Duff-Gordon was a widely acknowledged innovator in couture styles as well as in fashion industry public relations. In addition to originating the "mannequin parade", a precursor to the modern fashion show, and training the first professional models, she launched slit skirts and low necklines, popularized less restrictive corsets, and promoted alluring and pared-down lingerie.Opening branches of her London house, Lucile Ltd, in Chicago, New York City, and Paris, her business became the first global couture brand, dressing a trend-setting clientele of royalty, nobility, and stage and film personalities. Duff-Gordon is also remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and as the losing party in the precedent-setting 1917 contract law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, in which Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo wrote the opinion for New York's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, upholding a contract between Duff-Gordon and her advertising agent that assigned the agent the sole right to market her name. It was the first case of its kind, clothes labelled and sold at a lowered cost in a cheaper market under an expensive "brand name".

intimate ensemble from Lucile Ltd, circa 1920s