Back then, well-heeled ladies would waft. It was a time of jazz, soirees and women so graceful that they begot legends of beauty that were channelled from the colonies to the world’s cultural capitals.

In that Thirties era, ladies lunched, took tea in hotels and danced through the afternoons. Later, dressed in silk and holding forth in cut-glass tones, they would sip sundowners in the company of royals, spies, governors and barons.