Hachette, Australia, 2026
Cover design Christabella Designs
Cover images Shutterstock
Sophie Green understands the interior lives of women. Her books deal with their challenges and triumphs on their diverse paths to empowerment.
In The Frock Shop we see the fallout on a group of women of varying ages of the exercise of power and societal expectation. We also see the capacity of female friendship to create hopefulness and forge solutions.
And then there are the frocks! For the most part the cast of characters in this novel are not initially connected, but through fashion they come together and both form new connections and discover new ways of being.
Daphne is at the centre of the action. She was formerly the saleswoman in a fashion store in Mosman which in recent times has become an Op Shop. She has continued to work there and to curate the many donated items of clothing, finding perfect people for special garments.
Into her milieu come unhappy teen Lucy, shunned film star Christina and orphaned sadly inept young woman Margot. Daphne’s old friend Adelaide also returns to Australia after a long spell overseas as an opera singer – in search of the connection and emotional support lacking n the glitzy world she has so long occupied.
In following the trials of these women, the author introduces us to the story’s principal and unifying preoccupations – misogyny is at its worst here for the beleaguered Lucy who is afraid for her safety in her own family environment, and for Christina who was unfairly embroiled in a typical Hollywood sex scandal and who flees home to be cared for by her Mum.
Both find a haven at Daphne’s frock/op shop, Lucy through her passion for sewing and clothes design and Christina through her creative capacity to style and her interest in original fashion design.
The frock shop, it should be said, is not a hub of high fashion, but rather a place where both good quality clothing and the odd quirky or glamorous garment can be found. Here the power of clothing to evoke and form memory, boost morale and generally invoke happiness in the wearer is a major theme. There is nothing trivial about this transformative power. It strikes deeply at the human need for affirmation and self-love.
The book has been neatly designed with small pieces about the history of individual garments donated to the shop to introduce sections of the narrative – the mustard Nehru jacket with its brief reference to modern history, the houndstooth suit with its tale of change and loss, the 1980s unworn wedding dress with its story of a bride who refused to be trampled upon. Each garment gets a new life as our protagonists and others find theirs.
At the heart of Daphne’s work in the frock shop is a concern for the welfare of others and a recognition of the importance of creativity in a full and satisfying life. As each of our women finds her strength and overcomes the obstacles, the clothing becomes both a backdrop and a symbol of renewal and rebirth.
Compromise is only an option on the way to the achievement of a higher goal, and the redemptive power of love leaves the reader with a sense of hope for us all.
Thank you to Hachette for my review copy and to Sophie for a fulsome conversation about the empowerment of women and the significance of fashion for everyone.