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A review by 100pagesaday
A Dress of Violet Taffeta by Tessa Arlen
5.0
After Lucy's husband wastes their fortune on drinking and runs off with a showgirl, Lucy does the unthinkable to keep herself and her daughter Esme safe, she divorces from her husband. This is unheard of in polite society during Victorian Era London. Lucy has a plan to make money. She has always loved fashion and begins to design dresses. With the help of her one remaining staff, Celia, Lucy designs and makes a dress that is the envy of everyone. From there, Lucy begins taking orders. With Lucy's eye for color and cut on specific women and Celia's management skills, business takes off. Lucy meets Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and finds love as well as a business party. Lucile Ltd is now successful and thriving with clients around the world and a second shop in New York. Lucy, Cosmo and Celia make their way to New York with new dresses on the Titanic. When the unthinkable happens, all three manage to escape with their lives. However, the aftermath of the escape and the trauma will affect them forever.
Lady Lucy Duff Gordon is known not only for her elegant fashion design, but for creating fashion shows and modernizing women's underwear. Despite this, most of what I knew about Lady Lucy was from the movie Titanic. While A Dress of Violet Taffeta is a fictional version of Lady Lucy's life, the author has done a lot of research and used Lady Lucy's memoir as well as her design books and a viewing of her fashion collection. I was in love with Lucy's character and temperament from the start as she decides that she will support herself and Esme after her husband leaves. Lucy's determination to fulfill her dream now that she is divorced is even more significant in Victorian society. There are absolutely wonderful descriptions of color and the process of how Lucy made her gowns and built her business from nothing. Her ideas for women's fashion were able to move women forward in society. As Lucy said, " I truly believe that what women choose to wear will dictate the sort of lives we lead in the decades to come." In addition to Lucy, the other female characters were also amazingly written. I was intrigued the most by Celia who began as an unpaid helper and rose to managing Lucile Ltd. I think it's a shame that we don't know more about the real Celia, although I would have loved more chapters from her point of view. Lucy's sister, Elinor Glyn is also a force in her own right and became a well-known romance author. The Duff-Gordon's experience on the Titanic seems to have been twisted and they were made to look like villains for not going back to rescue more people in their lifeboat. The survivor's guilt seems to have affected Lucy and Cosmo as well as their relationship. Overall, A Dress of Violet Taffeta is an amazing story of a self-made woman of history.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
Lady Lucy Duff Gordon is known not only for her elegant fashion design, but for creating fashion shows and modernizing women's underwear. Despite this, most of what I knew about Lady Lucy was from the movie Titanic. While A Dress of Violet Taffeta is a fictional version of Lady Lucy's life, the author has done a lot of research and used Lady Lucy's memoir as well as her design books and a viewing of her fashion collection. I was in love with Lucy's character and temperament from the start as she decides that she will support herself and Esme after her husband leaves. Lucy's determination to fulfill her dream now that she is divorced is even more significant in Victorian society. There are absolutely wonderful descriptions of color and the process of how Lucy made her gowns and built her business from nothing. Her ideas for women's fashion were able to move women forward in society. As Lucy said, " I truly believe that what women choose to wear will dictate the sort of lives we lead in the decades to come." In addition to Lucy, the other female characters were also amazingly written. I was intrigued the most by Celia who began as an unpaid helper and rose to managing Lucile Ltd. I think it's a shame that we don't know more about the real Celia, although I would have loved more chapters from her point of view. Lucy's sister, Elinor Glyn is also a force in her own right and became a well-known romance author. The Duff-Gordon's experience on the Titanic seems to have been twisted and they were made to look like villains for not going back to rescue more people in their lifeboat. The survivor's guilt seems to have affected Lucy and Cosmo as well as their relationship. Overall, A Dress of Violet Taffeta is an amazing story of a self-made woman of history.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.