Clothes in Books Blog Awards

In my post yesterday I wrote a letter to my friend, Moira Redmond, from the blog, Clothes in Books, about the dress Eden Tong wore in Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan. She kindly responded. My reply is below her email.

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Dear Bill,

I may have to institute a Clothes in Books awards season!

We both very much enjoyed Kevin Kwan's Lies and Weddings (and his other books too) and both of us did posts about the book. 

Clothes feature a lot there, and, as I usually do, I tried to find some nice pictures to give an idea of the dresses.

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (a link to Moira’s post on her blog)

It's what I do on my blog, and I very much enjoyed (as ever) trying to find good pictures.

But you have outclassed me this time! Your research to find the original was so clever and so perfect. Kevin Kwan always uses real brands and names in his books, so you set out to try to find the dress/designer/print that he intended - and you succeeded big time!

I loved seeing that perfectly-described dress and fabric, and it was so interesting to learn more about the designer and his connection with Hawaii.

I can only say - wow!

You have always been a supporter and friend to my blog, and your comments on clothes are always funny and on point.

In the past you have often talked about practicality in clothes - when a heroine is wandering around outside unsuitably clad you will have a pithy comment about how better to dress for a cold climate (all that Canadian experience). You always made me laugh when a heroine in a flattering but flimsy outfit was sternly told by you to put on a more suitable hat (one that keeps her warm and won't blow away), a scarf and a down jacket!

But you also always had an eye for something stylish, striking and unusual.

And this time you have surpassed yourself.

I hereby declare you the winner of the inaugural Clothes in Books awards

Best Original Research 

Best Supplied Photographs

Please feel free to use this email on the blog!

All best wishes

Your friend

Moira 

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Moira

Thank you for the kind words and the Awards!

I am humbled and excited to be honoured by the inaugural Clothes in Books awards.

My appreciation of books has been enhanced by your blog which prompts me to consider the clothes of characters in every book I read.

I will continue to be available for thoughts on winter apparel.

All the best from your friend.

Bill 

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Kwan, Kevin - (2019) - Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems; (2024) Lies and Weddings and The Dress That Stole the Wedding in Lies and Weddings

The Dress That Stole the Wedding in Lies and Weddings

Early in the fall my blogging friend, Moira, from the wonderful blog, Clothes in Books did a review of Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan. My last post has my review of the book. After writing my review and re-reading her review I wrote to her as follows:

Dear Moira,

As I indicated in my comment on your review of Lies and Weddings I enjoy Kevin Kwan’s books. Sharon and I are on a cruise off the coast of Africa and I just finished reading the book. I raced through it. A link to my review is below.

As with you I was captivated by the description of the dress Eden chose to wear to the wedding of her friend, Lady Augusta (Augie).

Instead of the “peach organdy and lace Dolce & Gabbana halter neck gown that Bea had lent her” with the £4,700 price tag still attached Eden goes to the resort boutique to buy “a dress she loved”.

Kwan describes the dress as follows:

It was a black floor-length dress printed with a gold fan pattern on a voluminous skirt created by the Hawaiian designer Manaola.

To finish her look she pins fresh hibiscus blossoms in her hair “and did something she had never done before: she put on red lipstick”.

The hibiscus flowers in her hair would have been so striking.

While the dresses you showed on your blog are wonderful, I decided to look online for the dress described by Kwan as he listed the designer’s name.

I believe I found the dress. A photo is above.

The dress is from the 2017 collection of the Hawaiian designer, Carrington Manaola Yap. 

The website for his high school, Parker School, states:

Yap, a self-taught designer, shared with students details and video from his New York Fashion Week debut in 2017 when he became the first Native Hawaiian designer to present Hawaiian culture and fashion during this internationally esteemed fashion event. The following year, Yap also became the first Native Hawaiian designer to present an exclusive collection for Saks Fifth Avenue.

A link to his fascinating video address to the students during Covid is below.

The dress features a Pe’ahi Niu print. On his website he states:

The Pe’ahi is a primitive print honoring the crescent-shaped Hawaiian fans reserved for Hawaiian royalty. Made of intricately woven coconut pandanus leaves, these fans are often depicted in lithographs by high-ranking monarchs for both practical and ceremonial use. These native artifacts are now highly revered for their royal association and preserved in the likes of Hawai’i’s Bishop Museum, as well as a special collection of Pe’ahi Niu in London’s British Museum.

Manaola pays homage to these heirlooms with an ethnographic print that blends his affection for Hawaiian traditions and modern fashion in unexpected formations.

If the the dress at the top of the post is not the dress, I found a powerful photo of a model from the show wearing a voluminous print skirt. It is spectacular.

I can see why Eden drew the eyes of everyone at the wedding despite the abundance of haute design gowns around her. 

I expect Eden would have paid a few hundred dollars for her dress. Most clothes on Manaola's website are priced under two hundred dollars.

If you have any comments on my posts please let me know and I will include them on the blog.

All the best.

Bill 

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https://www.parkerschoolhawaii.org/news/2021/05/03/hawaiian-fashion-designer-manaola-yap-speaks-at-high-school-alma-mater/

Lies and Weddings

Kwan, Kevin - (2019) - Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems  

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan

(59. - 1242.) Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan - A spectacular opening in 1995. Henry Tong, having just won $7.4 million playing poker in Macau, returns to Hong Kong with an 11.68 carat diamond where, in the most spectacular nightclub at the Peninsula Hotel, he proposes to Gabriella Soong. As she enthsiastically accepts, an upset Roger Gao charges at Henry. Attempting to get away Henry falls over a low railing and is impaled 20 feet below on a crystal candelabra.

In the present day, Countess Arabella Leung Gresham, is planning every detail of the fabulous wedding of her daughter, Lady Augusta Leung Gresham, to Prince Maximillian zu Liechtenburg (Maxxie), at a super-luxe boutique eco-resort - for those who need a palace lifestyle when they travel - in Hawaii. She has designed and owns the resort. Unfortunately, a volcanic fissure destroys the exact wedding site. Fortunately, the volcanic eruption has meant cancellations at other luxe resorts. The show must go on.

Dr. Thomas Tong and his daughter, Dr. Eden Tong, live in a Jacobean cottage (a lovely four bedroom home) on a grace-and-favour lease adjacent to Greshamsbury Hall (43 rooms). Dr. Thomas tends to the frequent medical consulations needed by the Countess. He is the younger brother of the deceased Henry.

Everyone private jets to Hawaii.

Thus begins another saga of rich Asians dominated by imperious matriarchs. 

The Countess has a scheme to matchmake her son, Rufus, with a suitable spouse, Solène de Courcy (an artist, daughter of a family owning a chic French hotel chain, a lineage back to the French and Italian aristocracies). She is also appropriately beautiful.

Eden, who is Rufus’ best friend since they were 5, is entangled in the plot.

Not all is as it seems in paradise. Facades are being maintained.

Everything is fabulously fabulous. From the accommodations to the venues to the clothing. Photo shoots are under way every day before the wedding with the best fashion magazines. A whole fashion show could be undertaken with the haute designer clothing in the closets of the guests. 

The wedding is a dazzling comedic event for the reader. 

The consequences of her lifestyle confront the Countess when she returns home. “No” is probably the most difficult word in the world for her.

Yet the Countess continues to be relentless and cruel and vicious and oblivious as she pursues dynastic opportunities for her children. I was reminded of Disney’s Cruella de Vil.

She is aided by Aunt Rosina who takes off with Rufus to find a wealthy spouse saying it is his duty to help the family. She takes him to a wedding of new wealth. Not an ancient European aristocrat is in sight.

In the soap opera of her life a reckoning awaits the Countess.

With the world the playground of the super rich, the book bounds from country to country.

Kwan is a master of the social machinations of a Chinese (in and out of China) aristocracy. I find his books fun reads.

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Kwan, Kevin - (2019) - Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems