Dresses—Reinvented

When I was the Chief Brand Officer of ELLE Décor and Metropolitan Home, there was a showroom-event-a-minute and a trade show every month. It was a role that demanded that I look the part—stylish, sophisticated, and decked out in designer clothes. The first two I had reasonably down, but any funds for a high-end brand wardrobe were limited. With three children and a big mortgage, I had other priorities. Then, inspiration struck.

I found an affordable dressmaker and had her fit me for a simple sheath dress I designed. I brought a picture of the pattern to all my upscale upholstery fabric clients and told them that I would wear them. Their only investment? Two yards of material.

Soon my closet overflowed with one-of-a-kind dresses, some with matching three-quarter length toppers. The concept of a brand leader living and breathing her clients caught fire, as did each unique dress—at one event I was decked out in Pierre Frey’s splashy fabric of black-and-white sketches of NYC water towers; the next night in a gold-threaded Kravet brocade fit for any sofa;  another in a rich burgundy Schumacher satin; and even one in Sunbrella’s chocolate brown velvet outdoor fabric (I remember demonstrating how red wine would just bead right up as guests watched).

The New York Observer somehow heard about it and interviewed me for their Corporate Ladder feature. Then, all my clients stood in line to be next. An idea had taken shape out of necessity, and it became my calling card.

A decade later, I still trot out many of those dresses. But now I wear them to bookstores and libraries and workshop events, all because of another idea. One that was just as necessary, even though I didn’t know it when it struck.

As an only child, I had been obsessed with my larger-than-life, glamorous, stylish, and incredibly beautiful mother. She remained with me, haunting me in a way, more than twenty years after her death. Suddenly, as I stood staring at portraits of unconventional European women from the eighteenth century, I was overcome with a notion—that I had to learn about those trailblazers and write about my mother—and our relationship.

I just knew that I had to surrender and somehow, all the dots would connect. And now, after many years full of serendipitous moments and revelations along the way, the memoir of my unconventional mother, Saturday’s Child, is being published in April.

So, the story that was always hidden under each of the dresses was one that ultimately transformed my life. A story that will soon be revealed and is being described as Dirty Dancing meets Goodfellas meets Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood.

And given the upcoming book tour, it may be time for more fabric … I’m thinking of designing a series of sleek pantsuits in the new year.

—

Deborah Burns is the author of “Saturday’s Child”—a memoir of her unconventional mother publishing April 2019. Hailed as a must-read for every daughter who’s ever wondered where “her mother ended and she begins,” and by Kirkus Reviews as “Devilishly sharp … a masterful balance of psychological excavation and sumptuous description,” this PopSugar Top Ten 2019 debut is available now on Amazon and everywhere books are sold.

Follow her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/deborahburnsauthor/

Saturday’s Child: A Daughter’s Memoir

“Devilishly sharp… a masterful balance of psychological excavation and sumptuous description.”
—Kirkus Reviews

An only child, Deborah Burns grew up in prim 1950s America in the shadow of her beautiful, unconventional, rule-breaking mother, Dorothy—a red-haired beauty who looked like Rita Hayworth and skirted norms with a style and flare that made her the darling of men and women alike. Married to the son of a renowned Italian family with ties to the underworld, Dorothy fervently eschewed motherhood and domesticity, turning Deborah over to her spinster aunts to raise while she was the star of a vibrant social life. As a child, Deborah revered her charismatic mother, but Dorothy was a woman full of secrets with a troubled past—a mistress of illusion whose love seemed just out of her daughter’s grasp.

In vivid, lyrical prose, Saturday’s Child tells the story of Deborah’s eccentric upbringing and her quest in midlife, long after her parents’ death, to uncover the truth about her mother and their complex relationship. No longer under the spell of her maternal goddess, but still caught in a wrenching cycle of love and longing, Deborah must finally confront the reality of her mother’s legacy—and finally claim her own.

 

 

 

 

Tags: featured, memoir, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing