Dressed by Iris. Mary-Anne O’Connor. 2022.

1930: seventeen-year-old Iris Mitchell dreams of designing clothes, but there’s little spare cash for fashion in her family’s shanty-town home. The gift of a single purple ribbon from would-be boyfriend John Tucker, however, creates an unexpected opportunity…..and when Iris’s brother Jim joins the Sydney Harbour Bridge construction, the large, dirt-poor but loving Mitchell family can move to the city. Iris will be torn away from John, but he’s Protestant and she’s  atholic, taboo in their world, so perhaps it wasn’t meant to be…..

1932: By day, Iris scrubs the floors at Caron’s, an upmarket department store. By night, she designs and sew’s in her family’s tiny, crowded house. Friendship with gorgeous, livewire Natasha, one of Caron’s models, allows Iris to show her skills, but will her talent be acknowledged……..or exploited?

When John reappears, passions are reignited, and Iris must face not only their religious divide, but the apparent impossibility of having both marriage and a career. Meanwhile, the Mitchell’s must navigate life in a city riven by corruption, dirty politics and gambling. Will their faith, determination and deep family bonds save them when tragedy and adversity strike? In Deppression-era Sydney, the stakes have never been higher………