Walking suit

House of Lucile|Lucile

1910–12 · silk · Costume Institute

This walking suit, createdy by the British designer Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon), is thought to have been worn by Mrs. Frederick H. Prince (1860–1949), a prominent member of New York and Newport society. Mrs. Prince lost her mother in 1915 and her son Norman the following year, when he died from injuries sustained as a volunteer aviator during World War I. The war accelerated the abandonment of strict codes of mourning etiquette, particularly in Britain and the United States, where the mass casualties of the war and women’s changing roles prompted a reevaluation of elaborate mourning rituals. As women were joining the workforce and contributing to the war effort, periods of seclusion tied to traditional forms of mourning dress lost their relevance. After the war, fashion coverage of mourning diminished, yielding to increasing freedom regarding how, or whether, to display personal grief.

Artist

House of Lucile|Lucile

Date

1910–12

Medium

silk

Culture

British

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. Frederick H. Prince, Jr., 1967