Shopgirls: A Vibrant Novel of Self-Discovery, Friendship, and the Exuberant Fashion Scene of 1980s San Francisco—Perfect for Summer Reading

For Jessica Anya Blau’s Shopgirls, selling “wasn’t only selling. It was understanding an entire social structure surrounding the dress, as well as understanding who the customer wanted people to think she was.” Putting on a dress was aspirational, “an effort to create the ideal self…clothes were magic. Like fresh white snow on a gritty dirt road, they transformed the mundane into the spectacular.” “I thought about clothes…wrappings, and wondered if what you wore could change who you were. I felt like a different person when I was dressed up for work. Maybe molecules moved, synapses fired, muscle and fat shifted to fit whatever wrappings one decided defined their ideal self. Was I a different person now that I was working at I.Magnin?...was there any difference between me and the rich wife from Marin who worked as a floater simply for fun?...Did acting the part (as I did every day I worked) help you become the part?...If you knew exactly who you were inside, did it matter if you had on the apron or the skirt?” This is the story of Zippy Jane Tremblay, named after her mother’s affinity for speediness and pep. Miss Liaskis is in Formal Dresses. Miss Yolanda is the mean one with the candy ball in her mouth. Miss Dani is the manager, the fireplug. Of all of the Shopgirls, my favorite is Miss Lena, Zippy’s colleague in Petite Dresses. “Her brain didn't appear to operate in the low places of jealousy or self-loathing or shame and embarrassment…Miss Lena was all good. She loved Jesus more than anything, and she could see the better side of every person.” Shopgirls is a reminder that “People were more or less the same…They were just hanging out in different surroundings. Some of them had more money (Sorority Girl); some were dressed better (Miss Meredith); some were a little crazy (Jeff); some were a little mean (Miss Yolanda); some had pure hearts (Miss Lena); and some loved me purely (my mother). Still, they were all simple humans.” In the words of Miss Lena, “Jesus thinks each person is perfect exactly as he or she is born...I pray that they become better people.”