The Prince and the Dressmaker

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The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Countess Clementine of Artois is holding a ball to celebrate her nephew, the Crown Prince Sebastian of Belgium’s sixteenth birthday and all eligible young women are invited to attend. SQUEEEAAL!! This is huge! The city is a bustle of preparations, especially the dressmakers. In one store, a harassed woman is desperate for a new ball gown for her daughter, Lady Sophia, who ruined hers by going riding in it. The dressmaker appoints one of his seamstresses, Frances, to the task. Frances takes Lady Sophia’s measurements, who asks for the new dress to be ghastly, and works late into the night on it. 

At the ball the next night, mamas brag about their daughters, trying to one up each other as they’re being announced. When Lady Sophia enters, all eyes turn to her. She is dressed in all black, her eyes are smudged with kohl, her bodice is skin tight and cut low in the front and the back, her shoulders are draped in feathers, and her skirt is see-through displaying her stockings and garters. The dress causes outrage amongst the mamas, but someone is watching Lady Sophia with fascination from behind the curtains.

The papers call Frances’s dress “an abomination of taste and distinction,” so obviously the dressmaker isn’t too happy. Frances’s berating is halted when a gentleman comes in to find the person who made Lady Sophia’s dress. The dressmaker pushes her forward admitting he was going to fire her. Great! His client wants to hire her. WHAT? 

Well, the dressmaker's tune changes. He’s not firing Frances at all! She’s being promoted! With a raise! Four Francs a week! The gentleman offers her five. The dressmaker can’t offer any greater incentive, so Frances accepts the gentleman’s offer and he says to be ready to be picked up tomorrow morning. Frances is stunned and she’s not the only one. The whole of the seamstresses on staff watched this entire exchange. 

Early the next day with fog heavy in the streets, Frances is collected in a carriage by the gentleman. Again, the whole of the seamstresses on staff are watching. She’s driven through the streets that get lighter and progressively more ostentatious. Once at their destination, the gentleman introduces himself as Emile. He asks her to put on a blindfold because his client insists on privacy, and ushers her into a room. 

The client welcomes her and answers her questions, they are a princess more or less and are embarrassed by their appearance due to an accident when they were younger. This is all well and good, but Frances needs to be able to see them if she is to dress them. The client agrees and lets Frances remove the blindfold, but are sitting in a voluminous robe with a scarf covering their face. Frances drops to her knees in fealty, but the royal isn’t formal and offers her candy. They want Frances to make dramatic, beautiful dresses that everyone will notice and show her some pictures that inspire them. They’re from operas, ballets, and other aristocrats. And look at the shoes! The royal has some and insists Frances try them on. Of course Frances falls because they’re so high and of course she pulls the royal's disguise off their face to reveal Prince Sebastian. 

Palace footmen come to check the Prince is okay because they heard a yelp and he fakes a stubbed toe. Frances has been stuffed in his closet. When she emerges, Sebastian apologizes and explains he is the king’s only son and likes to wear dresses and would be disowned if it was found out. Sebastian tells Frances she can leave, but why would she? She wants to design dresses for the Crown Prince, it’s a dream job! They will help each other. 

Emile shows Frances to her room in the servants’ quarters and gives her one of three keys to the prince's dressing room, and yes he knows about the prince but it’s none of his business what he chooses to do or wear. After a few moments of letting her new reality hit her, Frances goes to the dressing room. The prince's first request is a dress inspired by marmalades and preserves that will go with an orange wig he just bought and he wants it in two days’ time. When Frances asks why he wears dresses, Sebastian can’t answer. Sometimes he thinks he is his father's son, but sometimes that doesn’t feel right at all and he feels more like he’s actually a princess. Frances isn't really fazed by this revelation. 

Sebastian asks what inspired Frances to get into fashion design and she explains when she was younger and visited the city with her mother, she saw a poster for a ballet, The Muse of Crystallia, and became obsessed by Madame Aurelia’s designs and eventually stopped recreating them and started creating her own costume designs. 

Sebastian finds Frances’s first design too conservative. He wants fantasy, but Frances is worried that he might feel silly in her more extravagant designs, but Sebastian gets to decide what’s silly or not. Okay. Frances starts a new design and creates a golden preserves masterpiece, and Sebastian looks ethereal. Great! Time to head out and Frances is coming too to Maldon’s Preserves Miss Marmalade beauty pageant. Confession time: this is the first time Sebastian has been in public dressed as a woman. 

The announcer calls the contestants to the stage to compete for three cases of Maldon’s finest preserves and the title of Miss Marmalade. The winner will be crowned based on audience response, so make sure to cheer for your favorite! The young ladies sissy that walk across the stage and pose for the crowd, but when Sebastian walks, she is declared a goddess from the land of citrus. Frances watches from the crowd, cheering for Sebastian as she is declared Miss Marmalade. When asked her name, Sebastian tells the announcer it's Lady Crystallia. 

The following day, Emile wakes Sebastian who is asleep against a pyramid wall of preserves. The King has requested his company. Whilst watching polo, the King, who is really into the match, and the Queen ask Sebastian if any young ladies caught his eye at the ball. Well no, parties aren’t the best place to get to know someone, which is exactly what they think and are going to be setting up individual meetings for him starting tomorrow with Princess Juliana! This is all very much, and Sebastian argues he’s only sixteen. Pish! Everyone else in the family were betrothed as toddlers, at least they’re giving Sebastian the option to choose who. ((That still isn’t a good thing!)) 

Back in Sebastian’s dressing room, Frances is working on new designs when Sebastian comes in and collapses to the sofa to continue his existential crisis. How can he live up to his parents’ expectations?! Frances comforts Sebastian, telling him that when she saw Lady Crystallia, Frances saw the real Sebastian and it was magic. Sebastian feels the same, that Lady Crystallia can do so much more than he can. 

At dinner with Princess Juliana and her family, Sebastian hides behind his parents and is stressed by the whole thing. His father has to intercede and sends them a tour of the rose garden, a retreat for lovers. At first, the walk goes well, but Princess Juliana has to go and ruin things by saying how she would like for them to continue getting to know each other and maybe things could change between them. Sebastian runs off and into a hedge. 

Back in the dressing room, Frances is exploring Sebastian’s wardrobe when he comes in rattled. He spies the dress she’s been working on and needs to go out it in. Right. Now. They’re admiring the dancers on stage in the music hall when a balding man knocks into Lady Crystallia. He’s clearly been drinking and tries to invite her to come sit with him. When he gets too close, Lady Crystallia slaps him, and because he’s drunk, he stumbles back more than he should. Obviously his masculinity is fragile and he starts threatening Frances and Lady Crystallia. A young man, Peter Trippley, intercedes, saying the ladies are with him and he takes them upstairs to the VIP room. 

Peter loves clothes, too, and says he likes the dress Lady Crystallia is wearing but that it could use “editing.” His family is opening a department store with fashion being its central business and he invites Frances to come to the fashion show he is hosting and offers to introduce her to some people. Back in Sebastian’s dressing room, they are both excited about Trippley’s department store and Frances is inspired to make a collection that will get her discovered. 

Sebastian continues to meet eligible young ladies and Frances continues creating couture for Lady Crystallia and her designs begin to inspire others. Because Sebastian is the prince by day and Lady Crystallia by night, he’s burning the candle from both ends. The King and Queen are worried and suggest he enjoy a spa weekend to destress and rest. 

Sebastian, Frances and Emile head to the spa town. While taking a stroll, Frances tells Lady Crystallia that her designs are being copied and it bothers her that she’s getting no credit for it and Lady Crystallia tries to comfort her. Just then, Princess Juliana and her brother happen upon them. Princess Juliana has heard so much about Lady Crystallia and is delighted to meet her, but her brother is lecherous in his greeting. Princess Juliana invites Lady Crystallia to the spa with her personal friend and costume designer for the ballet, Madame Aurelia. 

Frances begs Lady Crystallia to go, but… but… it’s a spa with very little clothing! And she called herself Crystallia after the ballet The Muse of Crystallia! It’s fine, just say you're a fan, begs Frances. Fine… At the spa, Lady Crystallia wears a voluminous swimming costume that also traps air when she’s in the water. It’s not the best look. Princess Juliana introduces her to Madame Aurelia and Lady Crystallia takes the opportunity to tell her how her designs inspired her seamstress Frances. This pleases Madame Aurelia and she compliments Frances’s work. Madame Aurelia continues to talk in the sauna, having a massage and in a mud bath about her history then asks Lady Crystallia’s real name. Before trying to come up with an answer, Madame Aurelia changes her mind and dismisses it straight away, knowing she won’t remember it. At last Madame Aurelia offers to look at Frances’s designs when they’re back in the city. After the ballet, she is organizing the Trippley’s fashion show so knows the ‘look’ they’re going for. 

Lady Crystallia can’t wait to tell Frances about the invitation. Stopping Frances from getting straight to work, Lady Crystallia suggests they celebrate. Frances puts on a gorgeous blue dress and Sebastian puts on one of the outfits Frances made for the Prince and they head out for dinner, then visit an aviary, ride a carousel, and go dancing before ending the night with fireworks. They credit each other with the success and confidence they’re feeling. When they go back to the hotel, they share a moment holding hands, then go into their seperate rooms and lie awake all night. 

The weekend ends and they head back to Paris and the roles they must fulfill. Sebastian, as the crown prince, meets eligible young ladies of the aristocracy and Frances designs, creates and mends clothes. At one point, Sebastian watches his mother talking to Frances and completely ignores the Princess in front of him. He can’t stop looking at Frances. While having afternoon tea, Sebastian stops listening to the Princess, thanks for her coming but tells her there is no future between them before walking off. As the King stands to berate his son, he clutches his chest and falls over. 

The doctors come for the King, the Queen is taken to her suite, and Sebastian sits outside his father’s rooms all night until the surgeon informs him they are done. Sebastian goes inside and his strong, full of life and vigor father is weak and looks really ill. The King tells his son there is no one he trusts more to look after his mother and their kingdom more than him. 

In Sebastian’s dressing room, Lady Crystallia gets ready for the ballet. She is distracted on the journey with Frances who is clutching her designs in a folder. Lady Crystallia barely notices the ballet or Frances’s comments, and Frances, sympathetic with what is going on with the King, doesn't push. In a confusing turn, Lady Crystallia stops Frances from meeting Madame Aurelia and offers to take Frances’s designs to show her instead. Everyone knows she is the Prince's personal seamstress and will put two and two together, outing Lady Crystallia as Sebastian. But, why now? Because Sebastian could be made King at any moment and can’t take any chances. 

With promises to get Frances’s designs in the show, Lady Crystallia takes her folder and dismisses her back to the palace. As Frances is leaving, Madame Aurelia passes her on the grand staircase and stops her, mentioning she recognizes Frances as a friend of Lady Crystallia’s. When Madame Aurelia asks her name, Frances says “no one” and flees. 

Later, Lady Crystallia returns and announces Frances is in the show! Frances declares that it doesn’t matter, she won’t be able to be there and will never be able to take the credit for her work without outing Sebastian as Lady Crystallia. Lady Crystallia is a secret so she must remain a secret, too, and she just can't do it anymore. Sebastian questions who would cheer for a King in a dress? Frances quits, willing to start over rather than languish in the closet, but Sebastian forbids it and orders her back to her servant quarters. Frances hands back her key to his dressing room.

Sebastian languishes in his rooms, curtains drawn. His parents visit and try to engage him, and during one attempt, Sebastian announces he will marry Princess Juliana because he’s come to realize his responsibilities. His parents are so happy, but Sebastian is clearly not. Meanwhile, Frances has gotten a job as a seamstress. The other seamstresses are gossiping about Prince Sebastian and his betrothal to Princess Juliana. Frances overhears and leaves in a hurry, upset, and knocks over boxes intended for Trippley’s. Peter arrives then and recognizes her, asking about Lady Crystallia, and she admits she no longer works for her. Peter pays the dressmaker to borrow Frances for the afternoon, taking her to Trippley’s. Frances is astounded by all the work being done and the huge space intended for fashion. Peter offers her a job as a designer because she has the eye. 

The night before the wedding, Sebastian goes out as Lady Crystallia and starts drinking. Prince Marcel, Princess Juliana’s brother, finds Lady Crystallia a bit tipsy. Prince Marcel invites Lady Crystallia to the wedding as his date but this is Lady Crystallia’s last night, she has hurt too many people and must go away. Marcel pushes his intentions even using the “I’m royalty” line, but when he says Lady Crystallia could be a queen one day, Lady Crystallia starts to laugh hysterically saying, “can you imagine if I married you AND your sister?” Wait? What!? Then Lady Crystallia swoons. Marcel pokes Lady Crystallia a bit and sees she is wearing a wig and that Prince Sebastian is underneath. Marcel orders his friends to pick him up and hide him. 

It’s the wedding day and no one has seen either Prince Sebastian or Prince Marcel. Well, it doesn’t matter, being at your own wedding as a royal isn’t necessary, the King can stand in as proxy. Before the ceremony can start, Marcel makes a dramatic entrance with Lady Crystallia being assisted in behind him. He pulls off the wig revealing Sebastian and a bucket of water is thrown in Sebastian’s face to wake him up. Marcel explains to the King that Prince Sebastian and Lady Crystallia are one and the same. Princess Juliana declares she can’t do this and flees as Sebastian admits he’s been wearing dresses for a long time. The King leaves. 

The news that Prince Sebastian is Lady Crystallia spreads like wildfire through painful, hurtful gossip. When Frances overhears Peter and his friends laughing at Sebastian, she calls them monsters and runs to the palace. She finds Emile and asks if Sebastian is okay, but Emile confesses that Sebastian is gone, he ran off and Emile doesn’t know where. He tells Frances that Sebastian left her all the dresses she made for him. 

Frances goes into Sebastian’s dressing room and starts to look through the dresses. The King, waking up on the floor surrounded by empty bottles, asks what she is doing but then he breaks down, wondering what he did wrong. Frances tells him nothing, it is just the way Sebastian is and that he only ever wanted to make his parents proud. Sebastian was perfect. 

Meanwhile, Emile has found a letter addressed to him and heads to a monastery on a remote mountain top where Sebastian is wearing monk robes. Sebastian gives Emile letters of apology for Juliana, his parents, and Frances that he would like him to deliver. Before he leaves, Emile tells Sebastian Frances is working on the fashion show for Trippley’s. 

It’s the grand opening of Trippley’s and it seems the whole of Paris is there. Frances is getting ready, but she doesn't feel happy even though Peter insists her collection is perfect and that she is going to be a star. Mr. Trippley welcomes the masses and the show is about to begin, so Frances is in the back making last minute fixes. She’s not too busy to notice someone stealing a ginger wig and gives chase. It’s Sebastian! Emile told him about the show and he had to come and see it. Frances insists this is her dream, yet Sebastian says the dresses she has made are lovely and her name is on them, but she isn’t in the designs at all. Frances becomes defensive and Sebastian sadly hands the wig back, wishing her success before leaving. Frances calls him back, telling him the trunk he left her with the collection she made for him is downstairs and that there is still time to get the models changed…

Together they hurry downstairs but run straight into Peter with the King and Queen and some Royal Guards. Peter hands Sebastian over and heads back upstairs with a clear warning in his look to Frances. The Queen, who has been so worried, grabs her son, crying. Sebastian asks his father to wait to take him until after he’s helped Frances with the show. The King orders the guards to give any and all assistance they need. 

Back in Trippley’s main hall, Mr. Trippley is introducing Frances's collection but notably never mentioning her name as the designer. The maestro conducts the orchestra as the first Royal Guard struts down the catwalk in a yellow strapless dress with matching hat, and he serves in his pose. The crowd goes wild as the Royal Guards walk, but Mr. Trippley is livid. He finds Sebastian in his catwalk outfit and orders security to grab him because he's kicking him out and taking his show back. Someone stands in the way telling Mr. Trippley, “no, you are not.”

It’s the King! He’s wearing shining antler horns, a smoky red eye, a voluptuous off-the-shoulders gown, and a determined expression. He tells security to get their hands off his son. Helping Sebastian back to his feet, it’s time for the King to take to the stage and sissy that walk! And it’s glorious! 

When the King returns backstage after absolutely wowing the crowd, Frances asks why he is doing this. The King admits that the world is changing from Kings and Princes to department stores. Sebastian's life isn’t ruined, especially as he still has someone who loves him, giving a pointed look at Frances. Frances grabs Sebastian and kisses him. Sebastian is stunned, then kisses her back. Then, it’s his turn to take to the catwalk and close the show. 

Sebastian wears a crown and a big, red cape then dramatically reveals a blue dress with yellow accents and butterflies, the skirt layered and cut in the style of butterfly wings. Everyone is stunned. After all the models return, Sebastian introduces the designer, his friend Frances and the crowds run to the order desk. Peter congratulates Frances, it's slightly condescending, but we’ll overlook it this time, and Madame Aurelia presents Frances with a huge bouquet of roses, telling her the collection is fantastic. 

In the palace, Emile interrupts Sebastian’s studies with a message from his parents. They miss him and hope he’ll visit Brussels soon and he says he’ll be going to see them in a few weeks for his mother's birthday. Meanwhile, the fashions of Paris are inspired by Frances’s designs, and Frances herself is working with Madame Aurelia. When Sebastian comes to visit her at the boutique, he is wearing what makes him feel confident and most himself, a beautiful red dress and duck egg blue cloak. Sebastian embraces Frances, telling her he has some new designs to show her.