Nine Women, One Dress

May 23, 2016
Like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Rosen’s witty debut novel features a transformative item of clothing, not for four girls coming of age, but for nine women living in present-day New York. Max Hammer’s little black dress, as executed by 90-year-old pattern-maker Morris Siegel and singled out by Women’s Wear Daily, becomes the dress of the season. Rosen adroitly ties together her stories: the author is at her most romantic with Natalie, a Bloomingdale’s saleswoman, and Felicia, a middle-aged woman secretly in love with her widowed boss; she is at her most clever with Sophie, an underemployed Brown grad using selfies and hashtags to fashion the life she wants. And using multiple points of view enlivens and adds a lightheartedness to the book’s romantic story lines—Natalie and Felicia tell their stories, but so do the men in their lives, Jeremy and Arthur, not to mention a host of others united by the fateful dress. This is a fun book, tightly plotted and perfectly timed for the summer season. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners.

May 1, 2016
A charming story that twists the lives of New Yorkers around a little black dress. Or is it the other way around? A little black dress catches the eyes of the buyers lining the fashion runway and becomes the dress of the season. The dress finds its way in varying degrees into the lives of nine women as it is bought, returned, and borrowed from the third-floor dress department at Bloomingdale's. The title may sell the novel short--the story is not just about nine women; it's as much, maybe equally so, about the men who share their lives. The back story hearkens to the days when families fled Europe's looming Holocaust. Two young immigrants build a dressmaking business, and decades later their little black dress catches the eyes of New York buyers as Sally Ann Fennely, fresh from Alabama, makes her debut stroll down the runway. And thus begins the love affair with the LBD--a Max Hammer creation featured on the cover of Women's Wear Daily. It's a testimony to Rosen's artful vision that she fills the pages with so many characters, each with a unique story, without muddling the waters. There is the dressmaker and his son, a movie star and his "beard," Bloomingdale's employees who take the lives of their customers into their own hands, an attorney, his girlfriend, his executive assistant, a private detective and the husband she spies on, a young Muslim girl who finds the dress and offs her burka for a try-on, and more. It all works. Each scenario is revisited and broadened as the chapters unfurl. If there's a flaw, it's in the voices of the characters (each within their own chapters), which sound too similar, recounting their tales with the same subtle, ironic humor. Rosen's debut novel is rich in relationships, written with clarity and humor and surprise twists that bring the tale to a satisfying conclusion. A pure pleasure to read.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 2016

Imagine the movie Love Actually in book form and you've got this charming debut. The story follows an "it dress" from New York's fashion season and how it affects the lives of the women who wear it. Felicia, longtime assistant to widowed Arthur, receives the garment from a matchmaking staffer at Bloomingdale's. Jeremy, a movie star who was recently wrongly outed, goes on a publicity date with Natalie, who wears the little black number. There are also vignettes with Sally, who first modeled the dress in a fashion show; Max, the patternmaker for the dress's designers; and Medina, a young Muslim woman who sheds her burqa to see herself clad in Western fashion. We also meet the clerks at Bloomingdale's, who know their customers and are not afraid to work a little magic in their lives, using only fabulous clothing. VERDICT Chick lit at its best. If this book were a dress, it would fit everyone perfectly and flatter everyone's figure.--Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
Morris Siegel creates his last beautiful black dress after seven decades in the dressmaking business. The influence of this particular dress on nine women (and a few men) is loosely woven together in this lovely novel. In alternating chapters, we meet a rookie model whose career is launched when she's chosen to wear the dress on the runway; an aging Hollywood star who is out of place on Broadway; and a private detective who falls in love with the married man she's following. There's also a delightful set of stories that revolves around Bloomingdale's: salesgirl Natalie wears the dress to an event with a movie star; clerks Tomas and Ruthie give the dress to secretary Felicia as they set her up on a surprise date with the boss she's been in love with for years; and a rude customer eager to get her hands on the last size small gets her comeuppance. This quick read is at turns poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, and readers who like chick lit will find it absolutely adorable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)