THE FIRST-CLASS PASSENGER LIST FOR TITANIC’S MAIDEN VOYAGE INCLUDED SOME OF THE RICHEST AND MOST PROMINENT PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. AMONG THEM WERE MILLIONAIRE JOHN JACOB ASTOR IV AND HIS WIFE, MADELEINE; INDUSTRIALIST BENJAMIN GUGGENHEIM; MACY’S DEPARTMENT STORE OWNER ISIDOR STRAUS AND HIS WIFE, IDA; FASHION DESIGNER LADY LUCY DUFF-GORDON AND HER HUSBAND AND BUSINESS PARTNER, SIR COSMO DUFF-GORDON; FLAMBOYANT MANAGER AND PRODUCER HENRY BAXTER AND HIS NIECE AND PROTÉGÉ, ENGLISH SILENT FILM STAR ALICE BAXTER….
Louise was stunned. “Oh my goodness,” she whispered. “Everything really did happen. And this has to be my great-aunt Alice. This must have been the story Mom was trying to tell me.”
She did exist. The next question that popped into Louise’s head was one she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to, but she had to. Did Mr. Baxter survive? Did Anna? With a sweaty palm, Louise gripped the mouse and scrolled slowly down the page.
ON THE NIGHT OF APRIL 14, THE TITANIC STRUCK AN ICEBERG AND SANK THREE HOURS LATER ON APRIL 15, 1912, WITH GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. THE UNITED STATES SENATE INVESTIGATION REPORTED THAT 1,517 PEOPLE PERISHED IN THE ACCIDENT.
Heart pounding, Louise went back and typed in “Titanic: List of Dead.” Within seconds, there it was, in the public archives, a list of everyone who died that night. With each name that she read, Louise felt a constricting in her chest that tightened as she went down the list: J. J. Astor, Ida and Isidor Straus, Captain Smith…. She could picture some of them so clearly. This would never be a list of faceless names to her. The Titanic was no longer a glamorous, cinematic background—for the first time in her life, history was real to her, because now so were its people. Louise had almost made it through the whole list when she came across the name she was dreading to find. She hadn’t been able to save him after all.
She clicked her mouse on Mr. Baxter’s name.
IT WAS SAID THAT MR. HENRY BAXTER AND MR. BENJAMIN GUGGENHEIM PUT ON THEIR BEST SUITS, POURED THEMSELVES GLASSES OF THEIR FINEST SCOTCH, AND WENT DOWN TO THE SMOKING ROOM TO DIE LIKE GENTLEMEN. ACCORDING TO HIS BEREAVED NIECE, ALICE, HER UNCLE AND MR. GUGGENHEIM REFUSED TO TAKE A SEAT ON THE LIFEBOATS WHEN THEY KNEW THAT THERE WERE NOT ENOUGH SEATS FOR EVERY WOMAN AND CHILD. IN THE ONLY INTERVIEW ALICE HAS GIVEN ABOUT THE DISASTER, SHE TOLD THE HERALD TRIBUNE, “HE WAS MY UNCLE, MY MANAGER, AND MY DEAREST FRIEND. HE WAS A TRUE GENTLEMAN, AND WE WILL ALL MISS HIM DEEPLY. IT IS TOO PAINFUL TO REMEMBER THAT NIGHT. I MUST HAVE BLOCKED IT OUT OF MY MEMORY, FOR I HAVE ONLY A FOGGY RECOLLECTION OF ANYTHING THAT OCCURRED ON BOARD THAT SHIP, BUT I WILL DO MY BEST TO CARRY ON.”
Louise opened up a new window and typed in “Titanic: Survivor Stories.” She clicked on the first link.
LADY LUCY DUFF-GORDON AND SIR COSMO DUFF-GORDON BOARDED THE TITANIC AT CHERBOURG, FRANCE, UNDER THE ASSUMED NAMES MR. AND MRS. MORGAN, SO AS NOT TO ATTRACT UNWANTED MEDIA ATTENTION UPON ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK CITY. ON THE EVE OF THE DISASTER, THEY ESCAPED IN LIFEBOAT 1, NOW INFAMOUSLY DUBBED “THE MILLIONAIRE’s BOAT,” WITH THEIR SECRETARY, LAURA MABEL FRANCATELLI, AND NINE OTHERS, MOST OF THEM CREWMEN. THE BOAT WAS DESIGNED TO HOLD FORTY PASSENGERS.
THERE HAS BEEN MUCH SPECULATION AS TO WHETHER SIR COSMO BRIBED THE CREW NOT TO TURN BACK AND RESCUE THE OTHERS, IN FEAR THAT THE BOAT WOULD BE MOBBED. IN FACT, IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED THAT HE DID WRITE CHECKS TO ALL OF THE CREW WITH HIM, BUT HE CLAIMS IT WAS A GOODWILL GESTURE TO HELP TIDE THEM OVER UNTIL THEIR NEXT ASSIGNMENT. A DISGUSTED CREW MEMBER ALSO ON BOARD LIFEBOAT 1 RECALLS LADY DUFF-GORDON, IN THE MIDST OF THE MOST DEADLY AND HORRIFIC SEA DISASTER IN RECENT HISTORY, COMMENTED TO HER SECRETARY, “THERE IS YOUR BEAUTIFUL NIGHTDRESS, GONE.”
Louise clicked on the next link with a dread-filled anticipation.
MANY PASSENGERS ON BOARD THE TITANIC REFUSED TO TALK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES. IT WASN’T UNTIL MANY YEARS LATER, SOME NOT UNTIL THEY WERE ON THEIR DEATHBEDS, THAT THEIR STORIES CAME TO LIGHT. BUT ALTHOUGH THE TITANIC IS ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST INFAMOUS SEA TRAGEDIES, IT ALSO HELD MANY STORIES OF GREAT HEROISM AND BROUGHT FORTH SOME TERRIFIC TALES SHOWCASING THE BRAVE AND ALTRUISTIC NATURE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT.
Wide-eyed, Louise scanned the page, stopping suddenly at her friend’s name:
ANNA HARD, THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD MAID OF FIRST-CLASS PASSENGER MISS ALICE BAXTER, WAS SOMEONE WHO TURNED INTO THE DEFINITION OF A TRUE HEROINE, RISKING HER OWN LIFE TO SAVE THE LIVES OF OTHERS. IN AN INTERVIEW SHE GAVE TO THE HERALD TRIBUNE SHORTLY AFTER RETURNING HOME TO ENGLAND FOLLOWING THE DISASTER, MISS HARD, WHO WOULD LATER BECOME MRS. BRADY, AS SHE LATER MARRIED MR. CHRISTOPHER BRADY OF THE TITANIC CREW, SAID THAT SHE WAS ABLE TO KEEP CALM AND TAKE CHARGE WHILE EVERYONE ELSE WAS PANICKING BECAUSE SHE HAD A PREMONITION THAT SUCH A DISASTER WOULD TAKE PLACE. SHE WAS ABLE TO ASSIST THE MEN IN FILLING SEVERAL LIFEBOATS TO CAPACITY WITH WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WHILE ELSEWHERE ON THE SHIP, HALF-FILLED BOATS WERE BEING LOWERED BY TERRIFIED CREW MEMBERS WHO FAILED TO REALIZE THEIR FATAL ERROR. THEY DIDN’T FULLY COMPREHEND THE GRAVITY OF THE SITUATION, THAT THE “UNSINKABLE” SHIP WAS, IN FACT, SINKING, THAT EACH EMPTY SEAT ON THE LIFEBOAT SIGNIFIED ONE PERSON WHO WOULD BE LEFT TO GO DOWN WITH THE RMS TITANIC. MISS HARD RELUCTANTLY GOT ONTO ONE OF THE LAST LIFEBOATS ALONG WITH MISS BAXTER BUT LAMENTS THAT SHE WAS NOT ABLE TO TAKE MORE PEOPLE WITH HER, EVEN THOUGH, ACCORDING TO HER WORDS, SHE “FELT INEVITABLY THIS WAS COMING.”
Teary-eyed, Louise smiled proudly at the account of Anna’s bravery. Anna wasn’t going to become an old maid after all! She typed in “Anna Hard, Christopher Brady wedding,” and an announcement from the London Times popped up on her screen.
MISS ANNA HARD, 17, AND MR. CHRISTOPHER BRADY, 19, WERE MARRIED THIS SUNDAY AT GRACE COURT CHURCH. THE COUPLE MET UNDER EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN THEY WERE WORKING ON BOARD THE TITANIC ON ITS ILL-FATED MAIDEN VOYAGE. SHE WAS THE PERSONAL MAID OF ACTRESS MISS ALICE BAXTER, AND HE SERVED AS A QUARTERMASTER UNDER CAPTAIN SMITH. IT WAS REPORTED THAT THEY BOTH SAVED MANY LIVES THAT EVENING, HELPING OTHERS INTO THE SAFETY OF THE LIFEBOATS. MR. BRADY TOOK CHARGE OF ONE OF THE FINAL LIFEBOATS, WITH MISS HARD AND MISS BAXTER ON BOARD, ROWING IT TO SAFETY, DEFTLY AVOIDING THE DEADLY WHIRLPOOL THAT WAS CREATED WHEN THE BROKEN SHIP FINALLY SUNK. “SHE WAS CONVINCED THE TITANIC WAS DOOMED ALL ALONG,” MR. BRADY TOLD OUR REPORTER. “THE NEXT TIME MY WIFE HAS A PREMONITION, YOU BET I’M GOING TO LISTEN!”
What if she, Louise, had somehow affected the past? Maybe she had been able to make a little bit of difference after all!
Louise began clicking through various pictures, now all oddly familiar to her: drawings and sketches of the exterior of the ship, the Grand Staircase, the gymnasium with its mechanical camels, a few stills of the Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio movie, and finally she came to a black-and-white newspaper photograph. The grainy photo was a group shot of some fancily dressed people holding raised champagne glasses and standing in front of enormous smokestacks with White Star Line painted in block lettering on the funnels. Louise zoomed in. It was Mr. and Mrs. Astor, and Ida and Isidor Straus! And, could it be? She clicked the magnifying glass again, focusing in on the girl who was third from the left. She let out a cry of surprise—this girl in the photograph was most definitely her!
Louise scanned down to read the caption. April 12, 1912, RMS Titanic, A Deck. From Left: Jacob and Madeleine Astor, unidentified first-class female passenger, Ida and Isidor Straus… Ohmigod. Louise zoomed in even more until the image began to get pixilated. It was undeniably her—same eyes, same nose, same frizzy hair, and tight-lipped smile. She was the unidentified female passenger. She was really there! And now she had proof.
Louise picked up the pink dress gingerly, with a newfound respect for its history. She hung it at the front of the closeted clothing rack. It was by far the oldest piece in her vintage collection.
She suddenly remembered the lavender envelope she had hidden in her nightstand. It was still under her leather-bound diary, just where she had left it. With a fluttery excitement tickling her stomach, she broke open the wax seal and extracted the thick stationery.
She eagerly pulled out a handwritt
en note in a flowery red script.
Dearest Louise,
Darling, you looked absolutely fabulous in your pink dress!
Louise could almost hear Glenda’s raspy voice speak through the pages. Squinting, she held the letter up to the light and started reading.
We hope you will continue to be part of our small, select group of very important clients. We want to pass on a bit of our wisdom about the importance of vintage clothing to you, our newest Fashionista. It takes a special kind of person to realize that when you wear vintage you are carrying a bit of the past on your body, and the possibility that vintage can have an impact on your modern life. But there’s also the responsibility that comes with this privilege of owning a piece of the past.
When someone has a strong spirit, their energy never disappears. It takes another form and gets scattered throughout the atmosphere and embedded in the things and places that were most intimate and important to them. And it takes a certain type of sensitivity to pick it up. It is no wonder that women have clothing that carries a bit of their spirits with them. This is especially true if a very traumatic or wonderful event happened while she was wearing that garment. Someone’s soul can’t die; it simply gets transformed and transmuted.
That’s why vintage clothing is so powerful. You’ve felt it before, we know.
Unfortunately, my dear, we are now living in a time where we want fast and cheap and modern. True Fashionistas do not shop at the mall!
Don’t forget your history, Louise. If we do, we are destined to repeat the past, as though for the first time, without benefiting from any of the knowledge that can be gained from those who have come before us.
In the words of the inimitable French designer Coco Chanel, “Fashion fades, only style remains the same.”
Welcome to the club, my darling. Remember, you are already a star. Now it’s time to dress like one!
Marla and Glenda
Louise put down the letter, trying to take it all in. “Are you a stylist or a philosopher?” she whispered into her empty bedroom.
“What’s the difference?” She could have sworn she heard Glenda rasp from the ether.
Louise reached back into the envelope and pulled out a smaller card.
She smiled, exposing a mouthful of metal. Brooke’s thirteenth birthday was only three weeks away, and Louise knew exactly where she would find the perfect party dress.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest gratitude to my parents, whose lifelong encouragement and love has made this book (and everything else) possible. To the brilliant and understated Robert Josovitz for sparking the conversation when I showed up for brunch one morning in Mrs. Baxter’s white wool coat; that was the day when everything shifted for me. To Julian Schnabel for teaching a girl from Connecticut a thing or two about art, life, and generosity, and for showing through his inimitable example that other worlds are possible. Thanks to Alex Fuller Braden for his pro bono expertise. Two tickets to the premiere are in the mail. Thank you to Nancy Shea and Todd Lyon at the New Haven Fashionista store for inspiring the imaginations and inner divas of so many lucky customers. This book, and my personal vintage collection, would not be the same without you. A big thank-you to Patricia Escalona at Roca Editorial and all of the other international fashionistas who are helping to bring my book to a wider global audience.
My most sincere thanks to the honorary Traveling Fashionistas: my fabulous agent, Elisabeth Weed, and editor extraordinaire, Cindy Eagan. Elisabeth, I will always be grateful for your early support. Your humor and blind optimism made this long journey a blast, and thank you for connecting me with Cindy, my soul mate of editors. I feel unbelievably lucky to have you two on my side. Thank you.
Contents
FRONT COVER IMAGE
WELCOME
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
Text copyright © 2011 Bianca Turetsky
Illustrations copyright © 2011 Sandra Suy
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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First eBook Edition: April 2011
This book is a work of historical fiction. In order to give a sense of the times, the names of certain real historical people, places, and events have been included in the book, but are used fictitiously. The non-historical characters and events portrayed in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any similarity of such non-historical persons or events to real ones is purely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-0-316-18055-9
The Time-Traveling Fashionista Page 13