The Fashion Orphans

by: Randy Susan Meyers and M. J. Rose

Publication Date: February 1, 2022 by Blue Box Press

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Rating: 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Two estranged sisters find that forgiveness never goes out of style when they inherit their mother’s vintage jackets, purses… and pearls of wisdom.
Estranged half-sisters Gabrielle Winslow and Lulu Quattro have only two things in common: mounds of debt and coils of unresolved enmity toward Bette Bradford, their controlling and imperious recently deceased mother.
Gabrielle, the firstborn, was raised in relative luxury on Manhattan’s rarefied Upper East Side. Now, at fifty-five, her life as a Broadway costume designer married to a heralded Broadway producer has exploded in divorce.
Lulu, who spent half her childhood under the tutelage of her working-class Brooklyn grandparents, is a grieving widow at forty-eight. With her two sons grown, her life feels reduced to her work at the Ditmas Park bakery owned by her late husband’s family.
The two sisters arrive for the reading of their mother’s will, expecting to divide a sizable inheritance, pay off their debts, and then again turn their backs on each other.
But to their shock, what they have been left is their mother’s secret walk-in closet jammed with high-end current and vintage designer clothes and accessories— most from Chanel.
Contemplating the scale of their mother’s self-indulgence, the sisters can’t help but wonder if Lauren Weisberger had it wrong: because it seems, in fact, that the devil wore Chanel. But as they being to explore their mother’s collection, meet and fall in love with her group of warm, wonderful friends, and magically find inspiring messages tucked away in her treasures — it seems as though their mother is advising Lulu and Gabrielle from the beyond — helping them rediscover themselves and restore their relationship with each other. 

My Thoughts: Covers and plot descriptions drive my curiosity towards a book just as much as the author does. Having read many of M. J. Rose’s individual and collaborative works I was intrigued to see what this latest artistic pairing would bring. I was not disappointed. Let’s talk cover art for a moment. This cover is light and airy, hints at the wonders to be found in the closet, and identifies the differences in the girls. The title really pops with the wonderful red cursive script. It also hints at the inspiring messages the girls find in their mother’s treasured closet.

Even though the book tackles some tough topics, it does so with warmth and lightheartedness. Love, divorce, growing up, parenting, death, financial struggles are all a reality. This story isn’t one written to weigh the reader down. It is a story that identifies those challenges we all face and shows that there are various ways by which to move forward in our lives. The reader doesn’t need to be a lover of couture fashion or Chanel to appreciate the wonders of Bette’s closet. Rose and Meyers utilize what that closet represents to bring us a wonderful story of coming to terms with hidden truths and unravelling the depths of love that family has for each other.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this title.