The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson

            After watching the first two seasons of The Crown, I was especially interested to read The Gown.  The difference between the two is, while The Crown is all about England’s royal family, The Gown has them hardly in it.  Instead, the story is about the people who made Queen Elizabeth’s wedding gown, and they mystery surrounding them decades later.

               Princess Elizabeth is getting married.  Hartnell embroiderer Ann Hughes is ecstatic.  The Queen always gets her clothes from Norman Hartnell’s fashion house, so it would make sense the princess would have her wedding gown made there as well.  Although, no one can know this.  The location of the dress must not become public knowledge.  Everything about the dress must remain a secret, or else.

             This is not an easy thing to do with reporters waiting outside the fashion house doors, hoping one of the workers will talk.  Unbeknownst to them, Hartnell has very dedicated and loyal workers.  None of them ever say a word about the dress.  All the ladies who work there remain quiet on the matter.  Including Ann and her housemate Miriam Dassin.

Wedding Dress/Artwork by Kate Dorsey

           While Ann grew up in England, Miriam has recently arrived from France.  During most of the war Miriam was able to hide her Jewish identity, until it was discovered one day and she was sent to Ravensbrück.  Now, out of the camp, Miriam is trying to create a new life for herself.  Armed with a reference letter from Monsieur Christian Dior, Miriam enters London hoping to quickly find a job with her sewing and embroidery skills.  After rejection after rejection, Miriam barges into Hartnell’s and shows the man her work.  After seeing her work, Mr. Hartnell hires Miriam on the spot.     

         Needing someone to live with after her sister-in-law moves to Canada, Ann asks Miriam to share her house once they start working together.  Miriam agrees, and the two women become friends.  Every day they work side by side, embroidering the princess's wedding dress, as Ann and Miriam are the fashion house’s most skilled embroiderers. 

             In their off hours, both women go out and begin dating.  For Miriam it is magazine editor Walter Kaczmarek who catches her eye.  Ann dates the aristocratic Captain Jeremy Thickett-Milne.

             One would think these pairings should be switched.  It would be far more likely for the dashing Jeremy to go for the sophisticated Miriam, while it would seem the disheveled Walter would fit better with the more plain Ann.  That is not how things work out, though, and eventually it is discovered one of these men is not to be trusted.

              Mixed amongst the 1947 story of Ann and Miriam is the 2016 story of Heather.  Her grandmother has recently died, and she left behind a set of embroidery no one knows where it came from.  It isn’t until Heather sees a picture of the now Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding dress that she starts to get a clue.

           After this, another picture is found.  One showing her grandmother as a young woman alongside a now famous artist.  The picture is from a part of her grandmother’s life she never spoke about.

          Having lost her job, and with time on her hands, Heather goes to London to find the truth about all she has discovered.

            Even though this book is split between three people, it is not at all hard to keep things straight.  I cheered for all three women and the sweet men (one arrives for Heather), and eagerly awaited the comeuppance of the bad guy.  All the technical embroidery information was difficult for me to understand, having never done embroidery myself, but I am glad it was included.  It added to understanding just how difficult a task Ann and Miriam had on their hands.

         Something else I was glad to read about was how kind everyone was at Hartnell’s.  Miss Duley (the woman who managed the embroiderers) and Mr. Hartnell could have easily been mean and cruel, but they weren’t.  They did expect excellence and hard work.  Along with that, though, came caring for their workers and good treatment.  While this book was a work of fiction based off actual events, I really hope that was how Hartnell’s was in real life.