The Prince and the Dressmaker

Jen Wang

Feb 2018 · Sold by First Second

About this ebook

A fairy tale for any age, Jen Wang's The Prince and the Dressmaker will steal your heart.

Paris, at the dawn of the modern age:

Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride—or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia—the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion!

Sebastian’s secret weapon (and best friend) is the brilliant dressmaker Frances—one of only two people who know the truth: sometimes this boy wears dresses. But Frances dreams of greatness, and being someone’s secret weapon means being a secret. Forever. How long can Frances defer her dreams to protect a friend? Jen Wang weaves an exuberantly romantic tale of identity, young love, art, and family.

This title has Common Core connections.

Ratings and reviews

The second main character is a guy who wants to by a girl. He is willing to change his appearance by dressing in dresses, wigs, and makeup to do so.

Art: Delightful. The dresses full of detail, color, and imagination. The Prince: Adorable. Anxious. Hearts in the right place, he just has to listen to it and get there. The Dressmaker: Sweet. Fierce. Creative. Love her standing up for herself, other young women, and living her dream. The story is a roller coaster of family drama, fashion, and finding yourself during turn of the century France. The time period is important as so far as there are royals, the fashion sense, and the opening of the first department store. Only two points detract from the loveliness of The Prince and The Dressmaker and they are both admittedly on the nitpickey side. The awesome and adorable climax just…a tad unbelievable given the constraints, measurements, and timing. And it’s never explicit said that The Prince is gender fluid. That’s what it sounds and feels like from his dialogue and actions, but I can’t help but wish something more concrete language was used. I’m all for representation, but you can’t make it wishy-washy maybe-so. Of course, I could just be hypersensitive given the numerous fails of other media. Like it’s perfect but my mind won’t let the devil in the details go. After the totes adorbs happily ever after, there’s about 12-15 pages of behind the scenes drawings and information that is fascinating. I love that kind of information!

It was well told, and everything was great. The characters were personal and expressive and human, and I would have loved to see more of this story, even if by the end there didn't seem to be any left to tell. I have rarely seen stuff of this sort be told in a book, and that it was told so well, and with so much empathy for the people involved and their individual beings and needs is nothing short of commendable. It was lovely. I saw myself in these kids, and that spoke most to me as rarely do I get to see these parts of myself at all. It was real and lovely and it can help people understand those things of being for which there are not words. If we had a thousand books as good as this, the world would be definitively and forever a better thing. It's great that we have, at very least, this one.

About the author

Jen Wang is a cartoonist, author and illustrator living in Los Angeles. She is the author of The Prince and the Dressmaker, Koko Be Good, and co-author of the New York Times Bestselling graphic novel In Real Life with Cory Doctorow. Her work has also appeared in Los Angeles Magazine, The Believer, Hazlitt, Slate, and McSweeney’s. She has also written for the Adventure Time and Lumberjanes comic series. She is the co-founder and organizer of the annual festival Comics Arts Los Angeles.