The Girls of Slender Means

The symbolism of Anne’s Schiaparelli taffeta gown changes over the course of The Girls of Slender Means. Initially, the gown symbolizes the sense of solidarity and sisterhood the May of Teck girls have cultivated as a result of their communal living situation at the May of Teck Club, which is essentially a hostel for single young women who have left home to work in London. As young workers, none of the May of Teck girls is wealthy—especially since the nation has only just begun to recover from the violence, political turmoil, and economic strife of World War II. In light of this, the girls have to be creative and resourceful to get by. The taffeta gown, a gift from Anne’s wealthy aunt, is an example of resourcefulness. Anne doesn’t keep the gown to herself—she shares it with the other dormitory girls, offering them use of the gown on nights out in exchange for things like soap or lotion, which have become precious commodities during wartime. This quaint, mutually beneficial arrangement embodies the good-natured support network the girls have created to make the best of their situation despite the fraught political situation in which they have come of age, and despite their humble means. Amid the collapse of their world’s once powerful institutions, the girls take it upon themselves to look out for one another and make the best of a challenging and uncertain period in history. It’s also significant that this coveted item they take turns wearing is a gown, specifically—a traditionally feminine garment that brings to mind the stereotype of sorority sisters sharing clothing or accessories among one another.  

The gown’s symbolism shifts toward the end of the novel, when tragedy strikes after an undetonated bomb from an earlier airstrike goes off  in the May of Teck Club’s garden, causing a deadly fire to break out in the building. Though Selina manages to escape the burning building, she ignores Nicholas’s warnings and impulsively rushes back inside the burning building. To Nicholas’s disbelief and horror, Selina reemerges a short time later with the taffeta gown in her arms. Though Nicholas may initially have guessed Selina reentered the burning building to help her friends who have not yet escaped, her actual reason for risking her life is shamelessly self-serving: she has taken advantage of the present chaos to steal the gown so she can have it all to herself, and she promptly runs off with it. Thus, what originally symbolized the May of Teck Club’s potential to cultivate a community rooted in mutual support, respect, and solidarity comes to symbolize the collapse of those ideals in the face of selfishness, superficiality, and disregard for others’ welfare. When Nicholas looks in horror at Selina’s stolen gown, he is not only dismayed to see how wrong he was about Selina. He also must confront the fact that May of Teck Club is not the idyllic community he once thought it was.