Fashion sketch from Lucile (Lady Duff-Gordon, 1863-1931) designer archive, c.1922 Born in London, Lucy Kennedy grew up to become the designer known as Lucile. Admired for the romantic, feminine style of her eveningwear, she used embellishments such as ribbons, beads, and lace. By 1900 “The Maison Lucile” was an established couture house in London. She later went on to design for stage and film stars, as well as for the Ziegfield Follies. She opened branches of Lucile in New York, Paris, and Chicago from 1910 to 1925, but unable to adjust to changing fashion sensibilities and suffering from financial difficulties, Lucile folded by the end of the 1920s.