她是土木工程师道格拉斯·萨瑟兰(Douglas Sutherland;1838–1865)和妻子埃莉诺·桑德斯(Elinor Saunders;1841–1937)的女儿,本名露西·克里斯蒂安娜·萨瑟兰(Lucy Christiana Sutherland),1864年出生于英国伦敦。其父早死,母亲于1871年与大卫·肯尼迪(卒于1889年)再婚,随后一家人搬到了泽西圣赫利尔,她的妹妹埃莉诺·格林后来成为了小说家。露西小时候喜欢收藏、打扮洋娃娃,也会给自己和埃莉诺制作衣服[3]。1875年探访英格兰的亲戚后,露西和埃莉诺在回到泽西岛的途中遭遇大风,所乘船只搁浅,但两人幸免于难[4]。
家庭
1884年,露西与詹姆斯·斯图尔特·华莱士(James Stuart Wallace)结婚,育有一女埃斯梅(Esme 1885–1973;后来嫁给第二代霍尔斯伯里伯爵)。华莱士是个酒鬼,经常在外寻欢作乐,露西因而爱上与外科医生莫雷尔·麦肯齐,两人维持了很长时间的婚外情[5]。华莱士夫妇大约在1890年分居,露西于1893年开始提出离婚诉讼;1895年正式离婚。1900年,她嫁给了苏格兰的科斯莫·达夫-戈登爵士[6][7]。
"A High Priestess of Clothes," Vogue, 15 April 1910, 27ff; "How London Now Dresses Paris: Lady Duff Gordon's Work in the Gay City," Tatler, 23 April 1913, 134
Beaton, Sir Cecil The Glass of Fashion (1954), 32–34, 94; Castle, Irene, Castles in the Air (1958), 135–136; Baral, Robert, Revue: The Great Broadway Period (1962), 59–61.
Mendes, Valerie and Haye, Amy de la, Lucile Ltd (2009), 15, 170, 171, 179, 190, 196.; Evans, Caroline, The Mechanical Smile: Modernism and the First Fashion Shows in France and America, 1900–1929 (2013), 107, 214, 277; Bigham, Randy Bryan, Lucile - Her Life by Design (2012), 177-185.
Olian, JoAnne, Everyday Fashions, 1909–1920: As Pictured in Sears Catalogs, 3–4; The Saturday Evening Post, "Interiors by Lady Duff Gordon," 7 October 1916, 57.
"Lady Duff Gordon Ill," Women's Wear Daily, 29 April 1915, 1; "Friends of Lady Duff Gordon Thankful for her Escape," Women's Wear Daily, 10 May 1915, 11; other references to her plans to sail on Lusitania include M.D.C. Crawford's Ways of Fashion (1948), 66.
"Died:Lady Duff Gordon," Time, 29 April 1935, 67; "Lady Duff Gordon Dies at 71," New York Herald Tribune, 22 April 1935, 10; "Lady Duff Gordon, Style Expert Dies," New York Times, 22 April 1935, 17; "She Changed Eve's Dress," London Daily Sketch, 22 April 1935, 1–2.