“The dress only means something if you want it to. What is important are the people behind it. When it comes to these things that are handed down from generation to generation, each woman leaves her own mark on it, so that it tells ours story, stitch by stitch.” - Brenda Janowitz, The Grace Kelly Dress
Three women, Three different generations, one dress and one journey that ties them all together.
Its 1958 and Princess Grace Kelly's wedding dress is among all the craze for brides of the time. Young Rose is a seamstress in a wedding dress shop that is tasked to recreate a dress with Grace Kelly's lace for a prominent young woman in France. Rose forms a relationship with the girl she make a dress for and develops feeling for none other than her soon-to-be married brother.
Flash forward to 2020, Rocky is engaged to the man of her dreams in New York City. She has all she could ever want, but wearing the family's heirloom wedding dress is just not her style. She has no idea how to tell her mother because she has a special tie to the dress that Rocky cannot decipher. Step back to the 1980s, it is time for Joan, Rocky's mother, to wear the dress. But, she is not certain this is the path she should take.
As Rocky's wedding day approaches, she and her mother unwrap years of heartache in order to heal old wounds through the beauty of one family dress.
Oh, how I loved this book. It can be difficult to entwine the lives of three different people, but Brenda Janowitz wrote this beautifully. I especially connect to this now as I plan my own wedding. I recently got engaged to my college sweetheart, and my mom is helping me with this process just like Rocky's mom is. While I am not experiencing as many life altering moments as the women in this family are, I gathered a greater appreciation for the women in my life and the physical and emotional heirlooms we pass down with each generation.
The women in my life - my mom, my little sister, my grandmas (here and past) and my aunts - mean a great deal to me, and I thank this book for reminding me of how much I love them.