Patriotic Acts of Consumption: Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon) and the Vaudeville Fashion Show Craze

Between December 1917 and May 1918, one of the leading acts on the Keith vaudeville circuit was Fleurette’s Dream at Peronne , a fashion show featuring a dozen mannequins and a million dollars in clothing. Staged by British couturier Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon), the self-proclaimed inventor of the modern fashion show, the twenty-eight minute “playlet” was a celebration of fashion’s excesses and a clever promotional vehicle for the designer’s gowns. But as Lucile repeatedly emphasized in her stage appearances and newspaper interviews, Fleurette’s Dream was not a fashion show: it was a war drama created for the express purpose of raising money to rebuild French homes destroyed in the war. In framing the act in this way, Lucile aligned theatrical spectatorship and fashion consumption with the ideals of philanthropy, humanitarianism, and patriotism. Read against the US government’s wartime call for campaign and thrift, Fleurette’s Dream at Peronne becomes much more than a lavish spectacle wrapped up in a convenient war disguise. Through the medium of the vaudeville fashion show, Lucile advanced a pro-consumption message that actively refuted attempts to shame women for purchasing dresses, jewels, and other display commodities. Fleurette’s Dream at Peronne thus offers fascinating insight into the production of female citizenship during World War I and the evolving relationship between consumption and patriotism.