The Paris Dressmaker: A Novel (Paperback)

An iconic city under siege during World War II and the bravery of two women who joined the Resistance to save it . . .

Paris, 1939. The closing of Maison Chanel thrusts haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion and into occupation as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. 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, the faithful pledge to resist. Lila is drawn to La Resistance and is soon using her skills as a dressmaker to infiltrate the Nazi elite. She takes their measurements and designs masterpieces, all while collecting secrets in the glamorous Hôtel Ritz—the heart of the Nazis’ Parisian headquarters. But when dashing René Touliard suddenly reenters her world, Lila finds her heart tangled in the determination to help save his Jewish family and bolster the fight for liberation.

Paris, 1943. While cataloguing priceless works of art stolen from prominent Jewish families and on trains bound for the Führer’s ranks in Berlin, Sandrine Paquet secretly forages information for the underground resistance. Beneath her compliant façade lies a woman bent on uncovering her missing husband’s fate . . . but at what cost? As Hitler’s regime crumbles, Sandrine in drawn in deeper when she uncrates an exquisite blush Chanel gown concealing a cryptic message that may tell the fate of a dressmaker who’s vanished from within the fashion elite.

Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation—from fashion houses to the city streets—The Paris Dressmaker weaves a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight an evil they couldn’t abide.