The Dress Thief: one secret could destroy everything she holds dear... Kindle Edition

A very different storyline, interesting with an insight in to the competitive world of culture. It's wartime setting added interest and depth to the characters and their lives. It most definitely is a page turner and I was drawn in by the very different ,and believable, personalities of the characters. I thought Alex illogicallly suspicious and being unsure of herself, pushed her lovers away for far too long. The really nice one did go the extra mile and a half several times, bless him!!

Areas of Paris, people living,working and loving there,are all spread out across the pages of this mesmerising book. Real people and places combined with fictional characters, looking back at wartime while the second world war is stealthily creeping along the horizon. There was so much historical and cultural diversity included in this book that I need to read it again, but slowly so as to enjoy the sights and situations without hurrying to see " what happens next" . Whether you're interested in a good romance, fashion,the 1930's.Wartime Europe,this book has everything. .Most interesting and informative and thoroughly enjoyable.

Who would have thought a book about couture would also inform me about the Spanish civil war that was raging before the start of World War II? Not this reader and so as much as I was looking forward to learning about the world of fashion I’m pleased to report there was far more on offer in The Dress Thief.

As the title suggests the book looks at the business of copying designer fashion and our heroine is caught up in this dubious business. Designers were alert to the problem and employed different methods to keep their finished articles under wraps to try and foil the counterfeiters but when people are desperate, they do desperate things.

The setting is Paris in the 1930s and Alix Gower is recruited by a friend who lives on a barge supporting his two younger sisters to draw designs of a scarf. He will then sell the design onto another woman who will have the designs made up and sold at a fraction of the cost with the profits being split between them. After all Alix needs the money too as she supplements her wages as a telephone operator to support herself and her Grandmother, Meme.

Alix’s background is full of tragedy, both her parents are dead and the family have moved from England to France because of anti-Semitism with the support of a wealthy Count who fought with her father in the war and an old artist friend of Meme but the underlying feeling is that the past is a shadowy country. But with a dream to pursue Alix concentrates on getting accepted as a seamstress at a high fashion house despite the drop in wages she wants the role to fulfil her ambitions to be designer but she needs to be accepted to earn a decent amount of money through stealing some designs to sell through the counterfeiter’s network.
There is no doubt that men are attracted to Alix and she has one admirer in the form of Verrian Haviland, a war reporter who has recently returned from Spain but a nightclub owner also has his eye on her and he sees his chance when Verrian returns to Spain.
Through the engaging story-telling we learn about all the different parts that go into making a high couture outfit, from the cutting room to the final showing on the mannequins, or as we know them nowadays models. The rush to get a collection finished, the choice of fabric, the ingenious ideas used to show the dresses off to their best advantage are all included. And of course Alix has got caught up in a plot to steal the designs despite her ambitions to be a designer so we have a moral dilemma too!

This is a story of all those things that make for an involved read; there are various mysteries including a death, family relationships, having a dream and a romance, all perfectly executed. And no story about couture in Paris would be complete without the big names; Channel, Hermès and Schiaparelli to underpin the glamorous angle of this delightful read but ultimately this is a story of contrasts, the wealth of the women who wear the designer outfits to the poverty which exists in the city where the clouds of war are gathering.

In this lively novel, the reader is treated by the author, an opportunity to discover fashion in its truest form as you follow a young woman named Alice who starts off stealing fashion designs for money in order to support her family. With a fascination for fashion, a unique eye for fabrics and a memory which remembers impeccable details, Alice soon enters an atelier of a famous fashion designer for her most daring heist to date. One that will pay off handsomely and allow her and her grandmother to live comfortably.

However what Alice does not realise yet is that it is not so simple, as there are enemies everywhere hindering her progress and plans, from fellow sewing colleagues, to the designer assistants, and clients who will go to great lengths in destroying her attempt of completing the heist, and to shatter her dream and reputation.

The tale of the intricate fashion design processes, from initial sketching to the cutting of fabric, to composition and stitching to being paraded by models down a glamourous runway is beautifully captured by the author, in what is considered as a mesmerizing insight into the painstaking world of how designers try to achieve beauty with fabric.

Overall, this book is an entertaining and compelling read that woos you with the charming French Paris setting, amiable characters, alluring dresses, and the dashes of glamour and unexpected suspenses, along with the humble relationship of where one good deed is repaid, and how life can sometimes come back in full circle.

This book took a while to 'get into'. Once there, the story began to unfurl. The story is unusual, with many twists and turns. I was quite spellbound by it. I look forward to the next novel by this author. Will recommend it. The author's use of words is magical. There's so much research gone into the writing of this story, and this is appreciated. A very well written novel, which stands out from the crowd.

The Dress Thief is the first novel I have read by Natalie Meg Evans and it gripped me from the outset, setting up a mystery that ran through the story to the end. Part romance, part mystery, it had me believing I lived in Paris in the 1930s, in the world of high fashion. I learned a lot of things I didn't know about fashion and how the top couturiers work. I'd definitely recommend as a fab holiday read, or something to snuggle up with. Looking forward to more books from this author.

It was so easy to be transported back into 1930s Paris. I loved every word of it. The historical background was so detailed. I did know about the Spanish Civil war but not all the implications for so many people and it's terrible consequences. I'm starting reading the milliner's story next.