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She was the glamorous Lucy Cochran called Sissy by her brother- she adopted the CZ from there (pronounced See Zee.)
She pursued the stage and was a Broadway showgirl in the 1944 Ziegfeld Follies-following in her mother's well heeled foot steps. From there she would head to California to pursue Hollywood & from there- to Mexico where she posed nude for Diego Rivera.
photograph by George Platt Lynes for Vogue, August 1947
VERITAS by Diego Rivera hung in the bar of the Hotel Reforma in Mexico City. "In Venum Veritas," a reclining nude was painted in 1945 & Lucy Douglas Cochrane was the model. ( painting image from here ) Rumor goes that when Lucy married Winston Frederick Churchill Guest -and became Mrs. - his family bought the picture from the bar.
She married in Havana at best man Ernest Hemingway's home-Papa was a game hunting friend of the groom. After the wedding---
a series of Best Dressed Lists, horses, WASPY good looks, friends like Cecil Beaton, Truman Capote & the Duchess of Windsor.
Once described by a journalist -"With her pale skin, blue eyes, ash-blonde hair and trim figure, she is cut from the same cool, silky cloth as Grace Kelly. It is a patrician beauty that is indigenous to socially registered enclaves like Palm Beach and Southampton, a sporty, outdoorsy look that eschews make-up, hairspray and anything trendy. She has an outspoken, coolly self-assured manner and a throaty, well-modulated voice with a trace of a British accent." She shopped in Paris at Mainbocher-the cut to perfection simplicity couturier & would show up at the fashion shows in her sportswear looks- turtlenecks & skirts. Where CZ went- many followed, but she was an original-she never seemed to notice. Her clothes covered -she never seemed impressed with it all.
In her younger years in Boston she had loved gardening-had her own on the grounds of the family home & as a woman she wrote a book, First Garden in 1977. Now a collector's item-with illustrations by Beaton and the preface by Capote: "There, with her baskets and spades and clippers and wearing her funny boyish shoes, and with her sunborne sweat soaking her eyes, she is a part of the sky and the earth, possibly a not too significant part, but a part." Other books would follow. She considered the garden "her good and loyal friend." Much has been written about this star- but of note to this writer- she too was a good and loyal friend. What more is there?
"All the love and tender care you put into it will be returned." CZG
more CZ this summer-
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