Lucile moved across the Atlantic, allowing her to keep designing for affluent buyers unvexed by war until 1917. One of her business trips was rudely interrupted when her ride, the Titanic, sank. These images show she was influenced by historic fashion. This may have been most true during the war years in Europe between 1914 and 1918.
Left up to Lucile, it looks like the 1920s would have looked different with fuller skirts, more frills, and vee waistlines. She could design without heavy contemporary French influence. She embraced off-floor skirts rather than the floor length skirts in style in 1914.
It can be seen that she could be called an Anglo-American designer. The USA was not the reactionary hermit it is today - it was the up and coming nation much as China is today. Lucile caught on with value engineered prêt-à-porter styles merchandised by Sears, Roebuck & Co. expressly for American buyers. She also embraced the emerging celebrity culture and stars of the stage like Lily Elsie and Irene Castle as well as designing costumes for the Ziegfeld Follies.
