When I first met Lucie, I was riveted (almost to the point of shaken) by her life story, her unequivocal positive energy and dignified chic. It is not everyday that you hear a first-hand story of someone who fled the Nazis from age twelve to sixteen, seeking asylum in countries all over Europe, sometimes escaping in the night, running through the woods and falling to the ground when the German planes were overhead. Born in Vienna, Lucie was obsessed with fashion design and drawing from a very young age, but it was actually many of her experiences moving around the European continent, despite how traumatic it was, that led her to an extremely fulfilling life as a designer and a marriage to the cartoonist, Paul Peter Porges, who worked for MAD Magazine and The New Yorker and whom she met in Geneva while attending art school. Following The War, Lucie moved to Paris to work with a fashion couturier; it was there that she first saw and fell in love with the iconic designs of Pauline Trigere (whose own style is bar none). Three years later, Lucie interviewed with the legendary Ms. Trigere and was hired, close to on-the-spot, in front of the famous department store Bonwit Teller. They worked together designing for the next forty-three years. Needless to say, uncovering Lucie’s wardrobe of tweeds, challises, capes and coats, some of which have been New York Times Magazine covers is something to be treasured.

If you liked Lucie, you might also enjoy Barbara Louis and Felicia  Rosshandler and Edmundo Desnoes.