The Dress and the Girl is a treasure of a book that took me by surprise. I purchased our copy back in 2018 as soon as it came out! I was completely charmed by the preview and I was slowly building a beautiful home library for my two little kids. I remember being blown away by the illustrations from Julie Morstad and being so very taken by the words of Camille Andros.
Set at first in a beautiful seaside village in Greece, the story follows the relationship between a girl and a dress that was sewn for her by her mother. It became her favorite dress during a childhood spent in an idyllic hometown, all the while dreaming of an extraordinary life. But the day comes when they had to move away from their home. The girl had packed her dress in a trunk and set sail to America. The trunk had gotten lost in the journey and we could only guess how the girl had mourned losing a cherished piece of home and family.
But time is a flower *wink*. Life moves on for both the girl and the dress. The girl grows up and starts a family of her own. The dress, after being locked for what seemed to be years in a trunk, had found its way to a vintage clothing store in the same city that the girl lives in. One day, the girl and her daughter passed by the store and saw the dress in the window…
In 2021, I was shopping for kids’ clothes when I chanced upon a floral burgundy dress from Old Navy. The fabric, at least, was a dead ringer for “the dress” in the book. It fit my 5-year-old perfectly. I may not have made her the dress from scratch, but we were all pretty tickled to pay this kind of homage!
It had been 5 years since we first read the book, but it still holds the same kind of magic. I find that it is very evocative and it made me look at how nostalgic I am when it comes to my own childhood possessions. And I always wonder why. Do I miss the actual thing? Or do I miss my life when I had the thing?
The serendipitous, sweet ending was only amplified by the fact that I have kids of my own. I can see myself in The Girl, but I also see my daughters as The Girl. One day, the life we have now will merely be memories. They may have a few tangible things to take with them as they grow, but I imagine that a lot more will be lost or discarded. I wonder what these things are, but mostly I wonder what it is about their lives now that they will hold on to dearly.
