She befriends Ann, and the two eventually live together. Miriam keeps her faith a secret, still terrified by how precarious her situation is and traumatized by what she survived. Prior to the war she worked at a fashion house, so, desperate to escape the memories of occupied France and her own imprisonment, she leaves the Continent for England where she is hired (through her own determination) by Hartnell. One of those people is Miriam Dassin, a Jewish Frenchwoman who survived the horrors of Ravensbrück while the rest of her family was murdered.

Her job with Hartnell is the product of good luck, not her own remarkable skill.Īnn’s sections of the book highlight the bleakness of 1947 Britain: even though WWII is over, many people are still suffering from its aftereffects. Ann is not considered an artist, but a craftswoman.

Her home is cold and she struggles to make due with the rations available to her. She, like most people, is barely scraping by. Hartnell designs clothes for the Queen, meaning the clothes Ann works on must be of the utmost quality.ĭespite her skill and the fact that the gowns she works on are eventually worn by royalty, Ann’s job is not prestigious. Ann and the other all-female embroiderers bring his visions to life through extremely skilled work, and Ann is one of the best among her peers. Ann Hughes is grateful for the work she has working as an embroiderer for the fashion designer Norman Hartnell. It’s a bitterly cold winter, and there is a coal shortage. WWII has ended and Britain’s economy is floundering. The bits that occurred in the past, I loved. I struggled with the present day portion of the book because I wasn’t sure it actually added anything to the story. The novel occurs in two time periods: shortly after WWII and in the present day. I enjoyed The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson, mostly because it tackles a subject that is dear to my heart: why is traditionally-female created art (think quilting, embroidering, knitting) labeled “a craft” and of less than value than male-produced art? As a historical novel, a full third of the narrative I found to be unnecessary, which meant there were parts of the book I had to slog through in order to get what was actually moving the story forward.

Genre: Historical: European, Literary Fiction

The Gown by Jennifer Robson