The Duchesses and Dior

"When Dior invented the New Look in 1947, my mother-in-law, 'Moucher' Devonshire and her friend, the Duchess of Rutland, who were in Paris for a less frivolous reason, wanted to see the collection.  They arrived at Avenue Montaigne in their tweed overcoats, which had done years of war service, and ditto shoes.  They weren't allowed in. Of humble nature, the two duchesses were disappointed but not at all surprised.   They sat on a bench eating their sandwiches to pass the time till they could decently return to the embassy where they were staying."

From Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire's book, Counting My Chickens

The Extraordinary Housewife: The Duchess of Devonshire 1920-2014

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, the last surviving of the fabulous and famously infamous Mitford sisters, has died.

The Duchess Counts Her Chickens

My favorite photograph of the Duchess of Devonshire is  one where she is wearing red satin Balmain while feeding her chickens taken by Bruce Weber.

Chickens had been a part of the Dowager Duchesses life since she was a young girl of 6 and she had her own flock.  Her mother bought the food for the chickens and she sold her mother the eggs.  Chickens also feature prominently in the titles of some of the books by the Duchess of Devonshire:

Counting My Chickens... And Other Home Thoughts

All in One Basket

There is also Home to Roost: And Other Peckings...  

The Duchess of Devonshire, a Buff Cochin Cockerel and Oscar de la Renta

One day a Buff Cochin cockerel, of steady temperament, found himself freshly washed and sitting in a rectangular glass container on a dining table at Chatsworth.  Oscar de la Renta would be visiting Chatsworth and the Duchess of Devonshire decided against the usual floral table arrangement for chickens.  

"We put eggs in a beautiful pair of wine coolers made by the silversmith Paul Storr."  Newly hatched baby chicks were put into little china baskets surrounded by hay to keep them warm.  "They were only a day old, which was very handy, as they knew no different and thought it was all perfectly normal."

The Duchess of Devonshire

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire Had Pluck

When Andrew, the second son of Edward Cavendish, the 10th Duke of Devonshire, was born he was not meant to inherit the title of Duke of Devonshire or Chatsworth with its 297 rooms, 112 fireplaces, 32 kitchens and workshops, 17 staircases and 1.3 acres of roof.  But when Andrew's older brother, William Cavendish, The Marquess of Hartington, died during the Second World War, Andrew and his wife Deborah, became the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.  They inherited Chatsworth where no one had lived for years and had become a dreary girls school.  And when Andrew's father died leaving the estate with an 80 percent death tax, Deborah, the Duchess of Devonshire rallied, became known as the Housewife Duchess and turned Chatsworth into a working farm and a visitor destination.  

When the Duchess of Devonshire was 85 years old, Andrew died and their son Peregrine 'Stoker' became the 12th Duke of Devonshire.  The Dowager Duchess moved into the Old Vicarage in a village on the estate.  It was in deplorable condition but typical of the Dowager Duchess, she took on the renovation with gusto.  She surprised herself by painting the entrance hall apple green, hung a powder room with silver wallpaper and a portrait of Elvis, put a cherry red wood burning stove in the fireplace and heated floors which her dogs adored.

When she opened her newly renovated home for a garden party in aid of the village church, the Dowager Duchess overheard one of the ladies commenting, " I'm very disappointed.  I came to see chandeliers and all I found was Habitiat."

The Duchess of Devonshire's book are still available for purchase at Amazon here.

xo, Juliana

Monday's RARE vintage Photo of the Week #2: The Duchess of Devonshire and Her Chickens

My absolute favorite photos of Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire, who created a farm on a country pile, and counted her chickens...

My Heroine:  The Duchess of Devonshire and her Ladies...  

RARE vintage Weekend Style and Inspiration: Two Mitfords, Two Duchesses and One King

Crawford Doyle Booksellers is a very wonderful little bookstore on Madison Avenue.  It is a great antidote to the superstore bookstore which is often not so super.  The selection is highly edited and just by looking around, you discover many books you want to read.  

My discoveries...

The Sun King by Nancy Mitford

"Have you been to Versailles yet?"  Nancy Mitford wrote to her brother Tom in 1928.  Nancy Mitford is, of course, one of the fascinating Mitford sisters.  Her biography of Madame de Pompadour has been on my reading list for a long time but I have not found it yet.  But I was happy to find The Sun King yesterday.  

"It is my spiritual home and at this time of year it is the most melancholy place in the world."  Mitford continued in her letter to her brother.  Now, I don't know about you but I too have always felt that Versailles is my spiritual home.

Maybe it is because it is just so cozy, I naturally feel at home there : )

The book promises to be "brimming with detail and delicious bon mots and written in a witty, conversational style, The Sun King restores a distant glittering century to vibrant life."

All in One Basket by Deborah Mitford, The Duchess of Devonshire

Maybe it is because I have been reading books on raising chickens and studying chicken coops (have you seen the $100,000 Petit Trianon inspired coop in the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog?  If not, you can see it here.) for the spring arrival of my "girls" that I have had a desire to reread the Duchess of Devonshire's Counting My Chickens.  So, I looked to see if Crawford Doyle Booksellers had any of the Duchess of Devonshire's witty and entertaining books and found All in One Basket which is a compilation of the books: Counting my Chickens and Home to Roost with a few "newly laid" stories.

The Last of the Duchess by Caroline Blackwood

If you were to make a competition to see who more books have been written about: Coco Chanel or The Duchess of Windsor, I am not sure who would come out on top of the book pile.  I have no idea what could possibly be left to say about either Coco or Wallis but then I found a little book by Caroline Blackwood published in 1995.  It is actually less about the Duchess of Windsor then her lawyer, Maitre Blum, who kept her isolated and vodka-less (!) in the last years of her life.  Should be rather fascinating.

And speaking of the Duchess of Windsor, I did not notice this photo right away but in my father-in-laws apartment there is a photo of Letizia Buitoni's husband Giovanni Buitoni with "That woman".

I hope I have given you some stylish reading inspiration for the weekend!