Paris, 1939。 The world-famous Maison Chanel has closed its doors, and seamstress Lila de Laurent is one of thousands of Paris fashion workers left jobless as couture houses buckle under the weight of impending war。 As the Nazi regime draws closer, Lila makes the fateful decision to remain in Paris even as scores of others flee - including René, the man who’d captured her heart one summer and she’d hoped, would hold it in her future。
Lila’s fight for survival turns into a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda that sees Paris cut off from the rest of the world。 Yet in hidden corners of the city, les Parisiennes defy Hitler the only way they know how: with fashion。 As names like Rouff, Ricci, and Valois emerge, Lila begins climbing the ranks of the fashion world first to survive, but soon, to become an ally with those who resist。 At once she balances dressing the Nazi elite by day and when René suddenly returns - under treacherous circumstances of his own—she’s arming freedom fighters with stolen information under cover of night。
Paris, 1943。 Working as a secretary at the Jeu de Paume storehouse in the heart of the famed Paris art world, Sandrine Paquet is intent upon surviving the Nazi occupation for her young son。 Under close watch of the Nazi leadership in the ERR task-force, she must watch as the crumbling Nazi regime engages in the theft of priceless works of art as she secretly hunts for information - anything that might tell the fate of her husband who’d gone missing in the first dark days of war。 When she stumbles upon evidence that an underground resistance movement has been operating under the noses of their captors, she’s cautioned to look the other way。 But when a mysterious crate arrives at the Jeu de Paume Museum from a dressmaker who’s vanished from within the Paris fashion elite, Sandrine is drawn into a web of deceit that will test her convictions and reveal the lengths to which she’s willing to risk loyalty to those she loves。
As France struggles to survive in the face of the Second World War, two women embark upon a journey of faith, hope, and resistance through Paris’ darkest days of occupation。 From fashion to desperation, and to haute couture to the perils of a shaken humanity, The Paris Dressmaker weaves a story of two Parisiennes’ worlds colliding though years apart - where satin and lace stand between life and death in the brutal underbelly of a war-torn world。
Running Time => 12hrs。 and 27mins。
©2021 Kristy Cambron (P)2021 Thomas Nelson