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# Lady Mendl and the Duchess of Windsor founded a wartime charity to aid the French army
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/amerikanskaia-aktrisa-dizainer-i-blagotvoritelnitsa-elsi-de-vulf-1865-1950-v-zamuzhestve-ledi-mendl-v-barkhatnoi-nakidke-sozdannoi-spetsialno-dlia-nee-v-1938-godu-elzoi-skiaparelli/
- Published: 2023-12-27T12:44:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:34:14.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Museums, Society, Paris, People, Pop Culture

American actress, designer and philanthropist Elsie de Wolfe (1865-1950), by marriage Lady Mendl, in a velvet cape created specially for her in 1938 by Elsa Schiaparelli. The cape is dedicated to the Fountain of Apollo in the park of Versailles and is called, accordingly, Apollo of Versailles. The garment is now kept in the Metropolitan Museum.

During the war years Lady Mendl, together with the Duchess of Windsor, organised a charitable society called "Colis de Trianon-Versailles" (the Trianon-Versailles Parcel) to aid France and the French army. The organisation arranged exhibitions and events, the proceeds and takings of which went towards parcels for the French army. One of the landmark events organised by Lady Mendl and Wallis Simpson was an exhibition of dresses and fashionable clothing, "Paris Discoveries", in New York.

In one of her appeals to the public Lady Mendl formulated the aims of the society thus: "As two women of American origin, whose lives and interests are so intertwined with the life and interests of France, the Duchess of Windsor and I now turn to our friends at home and ask for their help. We have all spent many happy hours in our beloved France, so can you now, in some measure, repay our debt?"

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_10793@27-12-2023_15-44-33.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_10794@27-12-2023_15-44-33.jpg)

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_10795@27-12-2023_15-44-33.jpg)