Caramoor Presents Inside Lucie’s Wardrobe Through Sept 5 - First Display in Thirty Years of Lucie Rosen's Unique Wardrobe
Photo of Lucie Rosen by Cecil Beaton available in hi-resolution here.
Additional photos will be available on request in early June.
Caramoor Presents 2026 Rosen House Focus Tour: Inside Lucie’s Wardrobe
Every Friday and Saturday through Saturday, September 5, 2026
Rosen House at Caramoor | 149 Girdle Ridge Road | Katonah, NY
Tickets and More Information
Conversations at Caramoor: Behind the Seams
with Jessa Krick, Director of Interpretation, Collection, and Archives
Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 5:30pm (Free)
Rosen House Music Room at Caramoor
Information
KATONAH, NY – Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a vibrant cultural destination nestled on 81 acres of historic gardens and woodlands in Katonah, NY, is now offering its 2026 Rosen House Focus Tour: Inside Lucie’s Wardrobe every Friday and Saturday through Saturday, September 5, 2026, inviting visitors to discover Lucie Rosen’s fashions through a curated, docent-led experience. Jessa Krick, Director of Interpretation, Collection, and Archives at Caramoor, will lead a free talk about Lucie Rosen’s wardrobe, Conversations at Caramoor: Behind the Seams, on Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 5:30pm in the Rosen House Music Room.
Lucie Rosen’s unique personal style made her one of New York City’s most recognizable women during her lifetime. For the first time in over thirty years, her unique fashions are displayed in the Rosen House, enlivened by photos and new research. The garments she treasured and saved, from the shimmering silks of the 1930s to the bold colors of the 1960s, together with her fancy dress costume based upon Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera and her joyful approach to dressing, provide the inspiration for a lively and fascinating tour.
Guests step into the Mediterranean-style villa that Walter and Lucie Rosen created as a home filled with music, art, and extraordinary collections. Docents share the stories behind the Rosens’ carefully assembled treasures and share new discoveries about the fascinating characters that helped to shape Lucie's signature style, in these 45-minute tours.
Jessa Krick has developed this Focus Tour informed by the trove of Lucie’s garments dating from the mid-1920s through the 1960s, as well as by photos and other archival materials. The tour features eighteen dressed mannequins throughout the rooms of the Rosen House, plus accessories from the collection.
“We know she had many more dresses and outfits throughout her lifetime, based on the photos,” Krick says, “so the pieces Lucie saved must have had a sentimental value for her. They were the items she treasured.”
The central theme of the Focus Tour is how Lucie Rosen developed and displayed her personal style. Examples of her diaries and scrapbooks show her early interest in fashion, and images of her as a young woman demonstrate her nascent personal style. References to Rosen in the fashion press of the 1920s and 1930s are displayed in the early part of the tour.
Lucie Rosen in Vogue, February 1, 1926
Few of the surviving garments in Rosen’s closets have labels. Although custom-made clothing was not a rarity among women of Rosen’s social standing, Krick’s recent examination of her datebooks has revealed the name of her favored designer: Alan Kramer (1893–1985), mysteriously also known as Prince Tirtoff. This year’s tour is the first time Kramer’s name will be linked to Rosen’s sartorial choices, together with new biographical information about him and the extent of the long-standing professional relationship between the designer and his client.
Another notable piece on view is one of Rosen’s evening coats, which Krick now attributes to famed French designer Paul Poiret. Krick says, “This coat was previously mis-cataloged as a costume, but based on the embroidered orange velvet and striking color combination of orange and magenta velvet, which are both seen in a Poiret example from 1913 in the Victoria & Albert Museum, I am confident that this is a Poiret. We know Lucie was a Poiret client in the 1920s, so it may date from that period.”
Other examples in the collection show Lucie Rosen’s preference for dress designs apart from the mainstream of fashion, including a two-piece at-home ensemble newly identified as by her friend Ethel Wallace, Fortuny outerwear (and a dress of Fortuny fabric made outside of the Venetian atelier), custom-made fancy dress costumes, and a dress like those she wore for theremin concert promotion.
The Focus Tour traces the inspiration for Rosen’s unique dress sense, emphasizes her working relationship with designers and makers, and showcases how her choices fit into the historically inspired homes she and her husband Walter Rosen created in New York City and at Caramoor.
About Caramoor
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a vibrant cultural destination nestled on 81 acres of historic gardens and woodlands in Katonah, NY. Once the home of music and art lovers Walter and Lucie Rosen, Caramoor has evolved into one of the region’s most distinctive destinations for live performances, cultural engagement, and exploration – a sanctuary for music, art, and nature.
Each year, Caramoor presents an exciting array of concerts across genres – from classical, opera, and chamber music to jazz, American roots, global sounds, and the American songbook. Caramoor’s acclaimed Summer Season (June 20-August 2, 2026) brings audiences together for unforgettable outdoor performances from June into August in five distinct settings (the Music Room, Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Friends Field, and the Sunken Garden), while the intimate Rosen House Concert Series runs from October through May in the historic Rosen House, a Mediterranean-style villa listed on the National Register of Historic Places and filled with treasures from around the world. With a mission to engage audiences of all ages, Caramoor also offers a selection of concerts and programs for families and our youngest listeners.
Caramoor is a place where music, history, and nature come together to create moments of beauty and connection for all who visit. In addition to hearing concerts, visitors to Caramoor can tour the spectacular Rosen House, explore its intriguing collections, enjoy a picnic, and experience the lush gardens and grounds – including Caramoor’s unique collection of site-specific Sound Art, permanently installed sound sculptures which draw inspiration from their environment. Caramoor also offers a formal afternoon tea service year-round in the Music Room (by reservation), a seasonal concessions tent, and a selection of public programs such as yoga, art classes, and large-scale community events. The estate’s gardens and grounds are also open year round to visitors, free of charge, for picnicking and walking daily from 10am to 4pm.