It has been a fair bit of time since my last post about the Duchess of Windsor. A guaranteed esoteric favorite at The Esoteric Curiosa!
Today is the 25th anniversary of the duchess' death; April 24, 1986. To say the least, I am still surprised by the quick passage of the time that has ensued since the ‘shadow duchess’ as she had become by then, passed into the shadows of eternity!
She is too strong a personality to stay sidelined for long, and as a result, I’ve developed this post built around several newspaper articles from years past, detailing the ‘spirit’ that prevailed in the life of the ‘Yankee Duchess!’
I’ve mentioned before, that the duchess over the course of her lifetime and especially since death; has been dealt a pretty grim ‘hatchet job’ when it comes to assessing her life, reputation and the cause and effect of her presence within the general scheme of the latter part of the 20th century.
Fortunately, in the recent past, more and more information has come to light with regard to a more realistic view of the duchess. Fact and fiction, which had melded together so strongly in so many instances where the duchess was concerned; have become loosened over the passage of time and fortunately we are able to now view her in a far more fair and discerning life.
The metamorphosis of a famous historical figure, which many might argue whether she is or not, is truly remarkable when the image appears more in focus and thus, is aligned as a more accurate one of the individual!
Esoterically, it is inherent in all of us who subscribe to such cerebral endeavors that the truth be determined and shared. Any other viewpoint is pointless and lacks the credence of the intellectual.
In reviewing the articles below, taken from each decade of her prominence on the world stage, it gives a bit of a ‘thumb nail’ about this intrepid woman who had so many sides that she was a cross between a ‘Renaissance woman’ and a ‘chameleon.’ The views are different, however, all convey what a focused and exacting individual she was, never failing to make an impression on those around her.
This esoteric has a fondness for ballsy, detail oriented women, who tend to dominate the scene and are forthright in their approach to life and see no challenge as too great to overcome and make no apologies for their successes.
‘Her Royal Highness’ is waiting and I think you will find her just as intriguing now as then!
Lonely Years Of A Duchess
Behind Her ‘Palace’ Walls
By Anne Donaldson
The Glasgow
April 25, 1986
The Duchess of Windsor who died in Paris yesterday after a long illness, spent the last 14 lonely years of her life in seclusion behind the walls of the small chateau in the Bois de Boulogne that she had turned into a quasi-royal palace for her husband, the former King Edward VIII. She was in her ninetieth year.
Wallis Warfield was born in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, of two long-established and respected American families: The Warfields of Baltimore, Maryland, and the Montagues of Virginia. She was christened Bessiewallis later shortened to Wallis, her father’s middle name.
He died while she was a baby, and mother and child were then supported by an aunt on the Montague side, Bessie Merryman, later to be Wallis’s chaperon. She ensured that the girl had a good education and met the right people.
In 1916 Wallis married a US Navy officer, Earl Winfield Spencer, but his drinking and ferocious jealously led to divorce in 1927. A year later she married Ernest Simpson, a New Yorker born of an American mother and an English father, who took himself off from Harvard to sail to Britain
A businessman, reserved but witty, almost more English than the English, he introduced his new wife into a London Hyde Park , and became noted not only for her extreme elegance of dress but as a skilful and unobtrusive hostess.
The then Prince of Wales who moved in just such social circles, met the Simpsons frequently, and in January, 1932, invited them to stay at Fort Belvedere.
Acquaintance became mutual infatuation; intensely personal on the side of the Prince, enchanted by her American chic and quick, bright mind; on hers perhaps heightened by the aura of royalty. Fellow visitors’ comments suggest that she basked in its glory and soon began to let a corner of the mantle settle upon her own shoulders. She became possessive with the Prince, dictatorial with servants. He hung her about with royal jewels.
The death of George V in January, 1936, and his accession to the throne, merely increased Edward VIII’s reckless confidence in the relationship! It also intensified the constitutional problem at the heart of it. He invited her to a State dinner; cruised with her in the Mediterranean; invited her to Balmoral – where she received the then Duke and Duchess of York
More realistic, but, as an American, quite unversed in British constitutional history and people’s deeply ingrained attitudes, she believed him, and after long discussions with lawyers began divorce proceedings against her seemingly amazingly amiable husband.
The unthinkable outcome of this – a crowned king marrying a twice-divorced woman with two husbands alive – finally spurred the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, into action! He asked the King to persuade Mrs. Simpson to withdraw the divorce petition, but was refused. The story which had been running for weeks in the American papers, became public knowledge in Britain
The Cabinet took soundings with the Labour Opposition here and with Dominion Prime Ministers overseas. MPs made checks in their constituencies. The word came back that not even the compromise of a morganatic marriage would be acceptable to the millions of subjects. Winston Churchill counseled the King to ride out the storm and wait till public opinion nurtured by popular press swung his way. The advice was turned down; the King would not deceive his people and be crowned under false pretences.
At this point, Mrs. Simpson appears to have realized that the situation was impossible. She left for the south of France
The King, however, remained determined on marriage, and thus on abdication. He was given the title Duke of Windsor, and left Britain
No member of the royal family was present, but the new King, George VI, sent a letter by the hand of Sir Walter Monckton, the Prince’s adviser, conveying the unwelcome instruction that his brother was to retain the style of Royal Highness but that this was not to be extended to his wife or to any descendants.
The new Duchess took the calculated, though in royal terms prudent, insult in her stride, but for her husband it was a lasting sore. For the next 36 years, she later wrote, ‘my duty as I saw it was to evoke for him the nearest equivalent to a kingly life that I could produce without a kingdom.’
It proved to be a limited and peripatetic existence. A near royal progress to Germany
The war came, but did not bring the active service for which the Duke had hoped. He was offered only the Govenorship of the Bahamas – variously called by the Duchess of Elba or St. Helena – and then the even smaller Bermuda .
Yet the Lord Chamberlain, in those crisis days of 1940, found time to instruct Nassau officials that a lady presented to the Duke ‘should make a half-curtsey….the Duchess of Windsor
The Windsors received no public word of thanks for their war effort and thereupon settled in France for the life of the idle rich, interspersing golf and gardening, care of the dogs and their respective wardrobes, with trips to New York, Palm Beach, Biarritz, Venice, and, quite regularly, to London.
In 1953 the City of Paris
She created a residence of beauty and distinction, filled with superb, furniture and precious objects, and there entertained cosmopolitan guests with the finest food and wines served by footmen wearing royal livery.
Close connections with the Paris
Relations with the Royal Family eased slightly after George VI’s death. There were rare meetings in London , and both the Queen and Prince Philip on a State visit to Paris
Then and only then did he Duchess receive royal treatment, flying to London in an aircraft of the Queen’s Flight, staying at Buckingham Palace, and standing thin and pale by the Queen’s side at the funeral service in St George’s Chapel, Windsor.
The next year, even more frail, she flew over to lay flowers on her husband’s grave. Thereafter she stayed within the walls of their home, an essentially American woman of exquisite taste, eve farther removed from the reality of her extraordinary life.
Romance That Created A Crisis
By Robert McLaughlan
The Glasgow
April 25, 1986
It is hard half a century on to grasp the notion that Edward VIII’s intention of marrying an American divorcee could have produced a constitutional crisis. It did, however, and even provoked fears in some of a royal coup d’etat with Winston Churchill as Prime Minister initially but akin to Fascism later.
The British Constitution is so flexible that it can cope with any situation – or so it often seems – because it is nowhere codified. On this occasion the stumbling block is really obvious. The Church of England of which the Monarch is head was unremittingly hostile on religious grounds to divorce. Mrs. Simpson had been divorced once and would have to be divorced again before she could be free to marry the King. She was thus a divorcee twice, obtaining her decree nisi in October 1936.
The Government was also hostile to the match and the Dominion governments, when consulted by the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, were even more strongly opposed, and opposed even to some form of marriage which forbade Mrs. Simpson the title of Queen (much as the Royal Family were long to deny her the title and status of Duchess of Windsor taken by Edward after abdication). Some politicians – Duff Cooper, for example – advised the King in effect to ‘live in sin,’ but Mrs. Simpson insisted on marriage – she wanted him but not the crown, but Baldwin forbade any royal radio appeal to the country which would have used Edward’s personal popularity as a countervailing force to what was a widespread parliamentary opposition.
It is that opposition which was really crucial and the crisis arose because Edward, abetted by Churchill and Beaverbrook, appeared ready to challenge it and reject the advice of his Ministers. Parliamentary opposition, like the general concern of the public, derived from the idea that divorce was scandalous.
This view was commonplace and though more social than political it inspired the opinions of all respectable people and most MPs. It cut the ground from beneath Edward’s feet, something made easier by the fact that he was unpopular with most Conservatives because of vague mutterings of a radical political nature and his light, seemingly irresponsible lifestyle.
The crisis was skillfully defused by Baldwin . Edward was persuaded to abdicate in favour of his brother Albert (George VI) and spend the rest of his life abroad.
Holding Court Among High Society Of Paris
by Nicholas Powell
The Glasgow
April 25, 1986
Until the death of the Duke of Windsor in 1972, the Duchess led an active social life both in her Paris
Her three storied yellow sandstone house with it grey tiled roof was set 150 yards away from the road in the Bois de Boulogne in the west end of Paris, screened by trees and surrounded by carefully tended lawns. French windows with lace curtains gave on to a front terrace.
A gate of black railings, tipped with gold painted spears and two carriage lamps bearing golden crowns gave on to a shrub lined drive. The Windsor
‘The Duchess was a perfect hostess, always impeccably dressed and with a gift close to genius for mixing lively and interesting people. Her sense of decoration and cuisine was second to none,’ said Diana, Lady Mosley who, with her husband, Sir Oswald,w as a close friend and frequent visitor of the Windsors
The Windsor
The Duchess, who married the Duke at the Château de Candé in the Loire district supervised the decoration of their Paris
The couple’s furniture was English antique and Duchess was a keen collector of 18th century Meissen
In the living room, paneled with white wood and gold leaf decorations the couple hung a portrait of the Duke in robes of the Order of the Garter also by James Gunn and a portrait of Queen Mary. A photo of Queen Victoria
Since the Duchess’s first serious illness (a stomach hemorrhage in 1975), the black and white striped sun blinds were pulled down. The back of the house was barely visible through ivy cluttered railings.
During the years preceding the Duke’s illness the couple dined every Tuesday and Friday at Maxim’s where they had their own table. The restaurant of the Ritz also reserved a table for the Duke and Duchess who frequently made up dinner parties of eight people.
Frequently photographed by French glossy magazines and a standard mixture of Paris
A few days before his death the Duke said to the Duchess: ‘Darling, what a life it has been. I am so sorry for so many things. I fear you will have to be very courageous during the years to come.’
But her own debilitating illness followed shortly after his. A close friend said: ‘After the death of her husband the Duchess was like a plant which had lost its gardener.’
Queen Of Fashion
By Anne Simpson
The Glasgow
April 25, 1986
Never beautiful, always impeccable, Wallis Simpson was one of those rare women whose first significant appearance wrought a sea-change on fashion. Against her hard-edged elegance the off-the-shoulder necklines and evening crinolines of London
And compared to the Duchess’s brilliantined head the boyish shingle adopted by so many stylish women of the day, seemed suddenly plain and uninspiring. Her crisp, neat suits, her sparkling jewels in modern Cartier settings, her bold simplicity and attention to detail influenced the wardrobes of the west in a way that no American had done before.
Yet everything about her appearance was European rather than Yankee. Paris
But it was Mainbocher that Wallis Simpson turned for her trousseau. He softened her looks slightly by dressing her in slim crepes with a draped or bow neck and in narrow bias evening gowns shined with sequins. Her wedding dress, long and narrow in pale blue-grey crepe, became the most copied garment of 1937 despite the dismissive attitude of the editor in chief at Vogue: ‘Candidly, for such an occasion as her marriage to a former king I think she and Mainbocher might have done better than they did.’
Ten years later the Duchess had forsaken Mainbocher and her rather governessy style to revel in Dior’s ‘New Look’ with its full bosom, hand-span waist, its rustling petticoats and up to 80 yards of fabric in the skirt. No fashion innovation since has equaled the excitement caused by that collection, so much in contrast to the ration book clothing of proceeding years. It was a look that confirmed Wallis Simpson in the best dressed lists for another generation. She was its first celebrated exponent. Its second was Eva Peron.
Like all the world’s fashion leaders the Duchess handled her appearance and dress as if they were a business in themselves.
‘Her hair,’ noted Cecil Beaton, ‘is brushed so that a fly would slip off it.’ In fact that hair was dressed three times a day: in the morning for a little hat; in the afternoon perhaps to be seen at the races; in the evening for a formal appearance at some polished dinner party. In her pursuit of vanity the Duchess was never less than a perfectionist, as if believing that the femme fatale who shook the British throne must always dress the part.
AFTER A FASHION
Duchess Of Windsor
By Marian Christy
The Spokesman Review
June 12, 1971
The verbally trumpeted announcement is made by the black uniformed butler manning the door of the posh Waldorf Towers apartment that is a home away from home for the stars of this century’s foremost love story – the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Irreverently: Two yelping, growling black pugs precede the Duchess’s entrance, challenging the stranger. Pandemonium is halted when the queenly Duchess slides back into a couch and issues soothing words. One pug squats on a pillow on which has been needle pointed; ‘You can’t be too thin or too rich.’ The other pug settles for a leopard pillow.
The rich-thin Duchess, 75 years old and weighing a scant 95 pounds, is remarkably undeteriorated! The slick bun hairdo is just done. Ditto the quiet make-up. She is attired in the best of Givenchy style – an impeccable silk print shirtdress with a knee-covering hemline. The posture is queenly. The giant sapphire-diamond earrings and ring are the kind Bulgari of Rome advertises in Town & Country.
The best-dressed Duchess talks fashion. It’s her world and she is one of its most powerful forces. Why she’s ‘numb’ at the freakishness of current fashion. Where can you find a simple linen dress? Her old and trusted friend, designer Oscar de la Renta, is coming to her rescue. She doesn’t understand why designers are in such a muddle. Why did they reincarnate the ‘40’s?
‘One should never look back,’ she said wistfully, establishing eye-to-eye contact. ‘Only forward.’ A terrible moment of nostalgia! When exchanging niceties I had inquired if they’d done this-and-that in New York
A quick change of subject and mood. What about the dazzling success of hot pants?
The rare Duchess of Windsor interview is capped by a charming demonstration that indicates the lady is forever young at heart.
Without further ado, she lifts her skirt to the thigh. Guess what. She’s wearing hot pants.
Givenchy, one of her favorite couturiers, created them to match the dress but: ‘I’ll never wear them without the skirt,’ she says. ‘There’s a big difference between being a fashion plate and being a fashion spectacle.’ The Duke, who has invaded the room and the conversation with his elegant-as-ever presence, laughs with unabashed delight at his wife’s little fashion show.
He chuckles. She roars. The pugs yelp again. She says she never wears pants in public. He says she has evening pants, the one Dior made. She corrects him with the fact they’re culottes. He says what’s the difference between culottes and pants?
It has been rumored that the Duchess, one of society’s super-eleganies, spends anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 a year on clothes. Most are originals from Dior-Paris, Saint Laurent
‘I know,’ chimes in the Duke. ‘I pay the bills.’ (Laughter.)
Money is really no object to the Windsors
When the Duke abdicated the throne of England to marry twice-divorced Wallis Warfield of Baltimore
The Windsors want to sell their famous estate, ‘The Mill,’ 25 miles outside of Paris near Versailles Paris
People are always saying that the Duchess stays young via regular facelifts and horrendous diets. She says: ‘I have a normal weight of 100 pounds. I lost five this past winter when I got a bug and couldn’t eat. Actually, there’s always a crisis of some sort going. I expend so much nervous energy during crisis days that the weight goes. I hardly ever skip desserts.’
When in Paris Cannes New York
‘Hairdressing is a life trade,’ she says. ‘And the competition among hairdressers is so intense it can only be called jealousy. I sense the emotions when I enter the shop. It’s just that I won’t be forced into elaborate styles. I have chosen my New York
The sitting Duke, smoking a pipe and leaning on a cane, waits for all this girl talk to stop. Then he wants to know what’s causing the lawlessness in the United States
Then the reminiscing: ‘Why, when I was in college I never resorted to violence. When I wanted to get frustration out of my system, I hazed a professor or two. I don’t believe the United States United States
The Duke reads every book he can get that analyzes the current state of affairs in America
The Windsors, who are very compatible, rarely disagree on important subjects. Both think marijuana should be legalized because the prohibition – if only on the moral level – magnetizes the rebellious young. The Duchess: ‘It’s like forbidden fruit.’ The Duke: ‘During Prohibition there was an excessive amount of drinking.’
Does the Duke admire one particular quality of his Duchess? ‘She’s a fantastic housekeeper. If I move something a half-inch she knows. She’s also extremely punctual and, oh, my, she does hate it when I get tobacco on the rug.’
Does the Duchess have a credo that is the basis of her life style?
Yes – little gems of wisdom that have gotten her through trying times. Listen.
On criticism: ‘When people are unkind, I don’t get overexcited. I figure everthing out for myself. All the while I tell myself not to panic. Outwardly, I am calm.’
On people: ‘You have to be tolerant.’
On travel: ‘I’m training myself to be dispassionate about going on planes. But I only take planes when I have to get somewhere in a hurry.’
One packing: ‘Now I take as little as possible. It’s sometimes a lot.’
On Saint Laurent
And so the Duke and Duchess, married almost 34 years, and with only 10 ‘initimate’ friends who’d be true blue in case of adversity, are a picture of togetherness. She says: ‘You find love so seldom. It comes so suddenly. If it’s real it remains.’
Amen, he says, and adds: ‘The only thing we don’t agree about is golf. She hates it. Other than that, it has been a marvelous life.’
They even laugh together.
THE DUCHESS LIKES A WELL-DRESSED HOUSE
By Eugenia Sheppard
August 11, 1969
‘I like houses better than clothes,’ says the Duchess of Windsor, who has been famous for years as one of the first ladies of fashion.
‘Clothes have never really been a feature in my life,’ went on the Duchess. ‘I’ve never cared a bit if I don’t have the latest dress on.’ Actually, at that very minute she was wearing one of her last year’s cottons for luncheon at the Moulin, the 26-acre estate with the converted mill house in which the Duke and Duchess have spent their summer weekends since they came to live in Paris.
The Duchess of Windsor is chairman of the coming Best Dressed European Homes Awards. Sponsored by American Burlington Industries, the contest will involve at least ten European countries, including France , Germany , Italy and Spain
The Duchess likes her new job, but already she sees problems looming up. ‘A European woman’s attitude about her home is quite different from an American’s,’ she says. ‘The Europeans are much less open about their houses. They aren’t interested in showing them to everybody. They regard them ‘as private places.’
A similar contest in the United States last year had the help of many home furnishings editors and reporters, but there is no such thing as a large, well organized home furnishings press in Europe , the Duchess observes. Another source of information on well-dressed homes is the decorator. Since not so many Europeans look for outside help, because they can’t afford it or don’t want it, there are fewer decorators.
‘More Americans use decorators than any other nation in the world,’ says the Duchess. ‘Most of the French don’t. In England
The overall standard of European decorating may be lower, because free information and advice is still much harder to get. ‘No Sears or Macys,’ says the Duchess. Not nearly as many gadgets are available, either.
‘I have more fun in my Waldorf kitchen than I’ve ever had in my life,’ says the Duchess. ‘It has every gadget in the world, but she especially admires the electric garbage disposal system.
In the United States
The Duchess thinks the Europeans prizes should be American electrical gadgets. ‘They do a pretty good job of kitchens over here because they like food, but any woman would like an electric rotisserie or food warmer.’
She has her own definite ideas about decorating. ‘You start with the rungs and curtains. Deciding on the color is ghastly, but once you’ve made up your mind, you simply put your furniture around.’
She and the Duke planned the mill themselves. ‘It was a terrible house to do. It was old and dirty and there was writing on the walls.’
The first step was to paint the beams and walls white. The furniture came from their past lives. The big, flat-top desk in the tall, two-story room where luncheon is served, belonged to the Duke in York House. So did the deep chairs, designed to fit the fox hunters when they sat down to have their boots pulled off. The map that shows the Duke’s travels by boat when he was Prince of Wales once hung in Clarence House.
‘You tend to learn by your mistakes in decorating,’ says the Duchess. ‘When I see something I like, I usually buy it right away and when I get it home, it often isn’t right.’
At one time she collected both Meissen and Chelsea
So far, the Duchess hasn’t even started to organize her committee for the best dressed home awards. It will be impossible to announce the winners before the fall of 1970.
Some of the women she is planning to ask are: Princess de Polignac, Simonetta Fabiani, Baroness de Cabrol, the Duchess de Liancourt, Her Royal Highness Princess Edouard de Lobkowicz, Princess Caetani, Mrs. Loel Guinness, the Duchess d’Uzes, Mrs. Edmond Bory, Princess Faucigny-Lucinge, Mrs. Gerald Van Der Kemp and the Viscountess d’Origny.
The Duchess likes contemporary decorating. ‘In my era,’ she says, ‘we used to set out all our possessions. Now they use fewer objects, but they are more striking.’
So far her furniture is all antique, but she longs to add a few smashing modern pieces. The trend to mix old and contemporary is sweeping Paris
LORD OF THE SPACE LADIES
Andre Courrèges Is The New Powerhouse Of Paris
Life Magazine
May 21, 1965
On famous women (some contemporary celebrities and many fashion houses out there may want to pay attention to Courrèges’ manners with the Duchess of Windsor
“Frankly I often don’t even know the names of my clients. When a client comes to me she must abandon herself to my hands. She leaves her identity, however famous it might be, behind, at the doors. To me a woman is far more important than a name. And if the woman doesn’t interest me, I won’t dress her. This week I dealt with a customer to whom I said, ‘Choose your outfit carefully because you are going to wear it out.’ ‘Won’t you dress me in the future?’ she asked. She had rightly understood me. I won’t.”
“Because of her capricious reputation, from the very first season I had opened my house I said I would not dress the Duchess of Windsor Windsors
“Finally the Duchess showed up. Taking her measurements, then making her first fitting, which I always do myself, were like a true corrida. The Duchess the bull – and me the matador. During the whole time she never spoke a word to me, neither did I to her. Repeatedly but silently she pointed an angry finger to some defect in her left shoulder until I told my assistant, in Spanish, ‘Emmanuel take care of that.’ He did, while I was going on with my fitting, not disturbed in the slightest by the Duchess’ thick silence.”
She couldn’t get over the shock. No house in Paris
“Anyway, after a 20-minute fitting I finally told the Duchess of Windsor Windsors
Duchess Of Windsor
Wonders Of Having Own Home
By Dorothy Roe
AP Women’s Editor
September 30, 1954
The Duchess of Windsor has her decorating problems, even as any housewife, she reveals in her fist published article, which will appear in two installments in the October and November issues of Woman’s Home Companion.
Her subject is the remodeling and decorating of the ‘first real home’ she and the Duke have owned since their marriage – a quaint old stone mill about an hour’s drive from Paris
‘After living in rented houses and with other people’s things for so long – we’ve gathered together in this enchanted spot all our most cherished possessions. Like the garden we’ve planted here, we’ve put down roots.’
‘This is the first home the Duke and I have owned since we were married – in fact, it is the only one – for even the house in Paris
One of the problems faced by the Duchess was making room for all the priceless collections and furnishings owned by the man who once was King of England, and in blending harmoniously the many styles of furniture accumulated by both the Duke and Duchess from their many previous homes. She says:
‘We’ve used a great deal of the furniture that came from Fort Belvedere, the Duke’s home when he was Prince of Wales and King. We also have here some of the things we had in Nassau and the furniture we had made for the house we rented in LaCroe – our first home after we were married.’
‘I suppose because we haven’t had a house of our own for so long, the Duke and I like to surround ourselves with familiar things. Each small object reminds us of some event in our lives, some shared experience, some old friend or member of our families. We both are terrific collectors by nature and collections need a place to stay. Of course you have to add too, my passion for fixing up and decorating houses.’
‘That began years ago when I was a navy wife. Wherever I lived, I soon learned that there were certain tricks which would turn an impersonal or discouraging room into something homelike and personal. And this experience has stood me in good stead since I’ve learned that the things you love and that mean most to you are the important furnishings of a house.’
The royal couple discovered their dream house two years ago, driving down a winding road from Paris Paris
‘Stone walls two feet thick and hand-hewn beams a foot square aren’t easy to alter. We wanted to make one large hall out of the entry and sitting room on the first floor of the mill building. Of course, plumbing is a problem, in any old house and we had worked over and over our plans to fit into the tiny space the bathrooms we needed.’
After getting a builder started on the major architectural changes, the Duchess left for New York New York
In its present finished state, the house is a charming blend of the old and the new, with every room filled with treasures from the romantic past of the famous couple.
The Duchess has gone in for a great deal of color throughout the house, but her favorite room appears to be her bedroom, which she describes thus:
‘My bedroom is long and narrow with sloping beams, a little like a tent – so I decided to emphasize this by draping the old beams with striped antique taffeta. The colors in the curtains are repeated in the harlequin bedcover – a present from my husband on my last birthday. Its pieces are put together by hand; like a patchwork quilt – I had decided it would be too expensive but the Duke ordered it for me anyway as a surprise.’
Explaining her theory of decoration, the Duchess says:
‘I think every house should have a theme in decoration – even if the theme is as simple as the one I chose for the mill – fruit and flowers. Then the decoration becomes something like a musical composition, each room carries the theme but with variations of mood and pace.’
Chance Meeting With Duchess
Brings Reports On Her Canteen
By Emilie Keyes
The Palm Beach
December 15, 1942
Lady luck looked over my shoulder Monday
.
Maybe it’s because it is the Christmas season, and nice things are supposed to happen then. Anyway, Lady Luck directed my footsteps so that I ran right into a chance encounter with Palm Beach’s most intriguing visitors, and the opportunity to ask the Duchess of Windsor about the project closest to her heart; The United States Canteen for Men from Overseas in Nassau.
When the Duke and Duchess of Windsor made their first memorable visit to Palm Beach in April, 1941, their trip was more or less official, they stayed at the Everglades Club, and official coverage was accorded the occasion. This time they came frankly as guests at a private home, chiefly to give the duke a brief rest from his duties as Governor of the Bahamas Miami
But when the chance presented itself for a brief conversation, I found the Duchess of Windsor as charming and delightful as on first acquaintance nearly two years ago. She was wearing the smart outfit in which she appeared at the luncheon given in honor of the duke and duchess by Col. And Mrs. Paul E. Burroughs at the Morrison Field Officers’ Club: A navy blue and white print dress topped with waist-length blue jacket, worn with her favorite type of calot hat in navy with face veil. Her ear-rings were centered with sapphires that matched her eyes, her jeweled lapel pin was in a three plumes design.
The duchess started the United Services Canteen less than a month ago on Nov. 23, and it has proven a haven for the overseas men in Nassau Nassau Nassau
The holiday season will be a gay one for the men of the United Services Canteen. The duke and duchess are returning to Nassau
Shopping for this tree is the chief business that has kept the duchess busy here. The special feature is to be an English custom known as the ‘Lucky Dip.’ There will be favors for all, but those drawing lucky slips in the ‘dip’ will receive special presents from the tree. Like all shoppers this Christmas she’s having her difficulty trying to assemble such items as kodaks, razor blades, shaving kits, to say nothing of attempting to line up 20 turkeys for the occasion.
New Year’s night there’s to be a big dance. There’s some shortage of girls in Nassau
The Duke of Windsor appeared to be showing the results of several days of relaxation and golf, looking tanned and rested. He was in light gray flannel suit with pale yellow slip-on sweater and his favorite type of straw sailor hat.
Dress Designer Discloses Wally Once Was A Model In New York
Duchess, When Simpon’s Wife, Needed Cash & Worked
By Dorothy Ducas
(I.N.S. Staff Correspondent)
November 8, 1937
This hitherto unknown chapter in the life of the country’s most glamorous heroine of modern times was revealed today by the duchess’s former employee, Miss Margaret Rooney, in an exclusive interview.
Miss Rooney recognized ‘Wally,’ as she calls the duchess, in photographs published before the abdication of former King Edward VIII. The duchess has not changed a bit, for all her romantic history since the days when she made $30 a week showing Miss Rooney’s original models, said Miss Rooney. Indeed, ‘Wally’s,’ flair for clothes, her grace, her character and her good sportsmanship still are cherished in Miss Rooney’s memory.
‘It was a lovely friendship,’ declared the dress designer. ‘She was a real person. I knew it the minute I saw her. She was sent into me by an agency, I believe, and although she was not what you would call pretty, I liked her at once. She was a perfect model – always, on time and she never failed to hang all the dresses back on their hangers.’
If Miss Rooney was pleased that her own expert eye had selected the woman later to be known as the most powerful fashion influence in the world as her model, she did not show it. She was much more interested in paying tribute to the democratic virtues of the wife of the former King of England.
For, Miss Rooney recalled, Mrs. Ernest Simpson in those days apparently had little money. Instead of whining, instead of worrying, as a lesser woman might have done, ‘Wally’ went out and got a job. The job was always a stopgap for her. She made no pretenses about continuing in the work, once things straightened out for her husband and herself, financially. But while she was working she paid strict attention to her job, did everything she was supposed to do – and more – with graciousness.
Miss Rooney recalled how the then Mrs. Simpson had a way of changing almost every costume she wore, so it looked even better than it had looked in its original state.
Always Different
‘If there was a sash that tied in front, she would tie it on the side on in back,’ laughed Miss Rooney. ‘She would wear the jacket of one dress with another, and she was continually switching hats. I remember one hat that was a favorite of hers - brown straw, with a turned-up brim and a bright peacock blue ribbon that came across the front and tied in a bow under the brim. Yes, she liked blue, and liked combining it with brown even then.’
‘Her own clothes, in those days, were conservative – in excellent taste, well fitting, becoming, but they were well worn. Neat as a pin, but you could see she had had them for some time, and that she had worn them hard.’
The woman whose wardrobe today is the familiar envy of women the world over was described by her former employer as ‘brown-haired, with a titian glint in her hair, with bright blue green eyes, and a very thin figure and a husky voice.’
NR
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