Lady Duff-Gordon’s Famous Curate Costume - 1917

Lady Duff-Gordon’s Famous 'Curate' Costume. The Ladies' Home Journal (January 1917) p. 46. GGA Image ID # 105ae5d879

Almost austere in its beautiful simplicity, “The Curate” is my favorite among all the designs I have ever made. It is the costume I am recommending to the women of America as a standard style of street dress, just as men have simple, plain street clothes that every man can wear.

Any type of woman can wear “ The Curate’’ becomingly. The slender young girl is exceedingly attractive in it, the full-figured matron is quite as charming, and even the very stout figure will be made more graceful by its simple, straight lines.

It is a practical all-the-year costume and will be quite as good for you to wear next spring as this winter. There have been many days, even in the summer, when I wore mine with a linen blouse and found it none too warm.

Skirt of 'The Curate' and Side View of 'The Curate' Costume Designed by Lady Duff-Gordon, Survivor of the Titanic Disaster of 1912. The Ladies' Home Journal (January 1917) p. 46. GGA Image ID # 105b0e712a

The skirt is comfortably full and perfectly plain except for the simple cloth buttons at the two side seams and the placket. A belt of the material finishes the waistline with a very narrow frill above it all around.  The coat is quite long and very straight and is lined with white silk throughout.

“The Curate” can be made up as a collarless model to be worn with the collar of your blouse outside, or with a detachable collar of organdy or silk. Or it may be made for you with a plain little mannish tailored collar of the material so the white collar will not be necessary.

Worn with a smart hat, correct boots, and gloves, “The Curate” will make any woman well dressed for all street occasions. I should like every American woman to include “The Curate” in her wardrobe.

There has probably never been a costume designed which was better fitted than "The Curate" to become the standard style of street dress for American women.

Since the publication of the Portfolio of Lady Duff-Gordon's Original Designs, her "Curate" costume has been adopted by women of taste and judgment in all parts of the country.

Women in prosperous circumstances who have never been able to wear the kind of clothes they wanted, because they lived away from the cities, out of reach; other women, who all their lives have been accustomed to good clothes, but have been obliged to pay extravagant prices for them; still, other women of innate refinement, who have never been sure of just what they ought to wear—all these have found what they needed in these models of Lady Duff-Gordon's.

Young girls preparing bridal trousseaus, matrons in the busy whirl of social affairs, women upon whose hair Time has laid a silvering touch they are all coming to our Lady Duff-Gordon Department with their clothes problems.

Signature of Lady Duff-Gordon. The Ladies' Home Journal (January 1917) p. 46. GGA Image ID # 105b6e97c4

“Lady Duff-Gordon’s Famous ‘Curate’ Costume,” in The Ladies Home Journal, Philadelphia: The Curtis Publishing Company, Vol. XXXIV, No. 1, January 1917, p. 46.