Evening cloak

Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon) loved pliant fabrics in pastel colours, as documented in her autobiography. Here she uses plump pink satin rosebuds to enhance this elegant cloak. They draw attention to the soft flattering collar which would have framed the wearer's face. The double-layered cloak falls from the neck in graceful folds to scalloped hems at hip and ankle level.

Lucile was born Lucy Sutherland in London in 1863. She began dressmaking for friends, and in 1891 opened her own fashion house. She married Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon in 1900. Lady Duff Gordon became a celebrated fashion designer with branches in New York (1909), Chicago (1911) and Paris (1911). She was famous for her clever use of fabrics to create soft, harmonious effects, subtle colour schemes and romantic dresses, particularly suited to evening wear. As she wrote in Discretions and Indiscretions (1932): 'For me there was a positive intoxication in taking yards of shimmering silks, laces airy as gossamer and lengths of ribbons, delicate and rainbow-coloured, and fashioning of them garments so lovely that they might have been worn by some princess in a fairy tale'.