Join Books.org — it's free

Women's Fiction, Phases of Life - Fiction, Conflicts - Fiction
Wolves in Chic Clothing by Carrie Karasyov — book cover

Wolves in Chic Clothing

by Carrie Karasyov, Jill Kargman
Write a review
Log in to track your reading progress.

Overview

In The Right Address, Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman seared through the upper crust of New York’s glitterati with wicked glee. In their delicious new novel, Wolves in Chic Clothing, they train their merciless spotlight on the young princes and princesses poised to inherit Park Avenue.

Julia, a hip, downtown salesgirl at Pelham’s jewelry store, finds her social life turned on its head when she is asked to deliver a necklace to the store’s young heiress, Lell Pelham, on Lell’s wedding day. Beguiled by Julia’s earnest cluelessness and her vintage-chic vibe, Lell and her gang adopt Julia, and “Eliza Doolittle” her into passing as the heiress to a family fortune, just for a laugh.

Dazed by the whirlwind of trust funds, pedigrees, Cosmopolitans, and penthouses in her new world, Julia is unprepared for the ardent advances of Lell’s husband—or the vicious claws her new “friends” develop when they decide Julia is an ingrate, and demote her from society goddess to penniless cling-on with one well-timed editorial. Suddenly, she must return the borrowed couture clothes and try to remember who she was before the body snatching took place.

Hilarious and completely addictive, Wolves in Chic Clothing is a modern-day rags-to-riches-and-back-again fairy tale that will leave fans stamping their Manolo Blahniks for more.

From the Hardcover edition.

Synopsis

In The Right Address, Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman seared through the upper crust of New York s glitterati with wicked glee. In their delicious new novel, Wolves in Chic Clothing, they train their merciless spotlight on the young princes and princesses poised to inherit Park Avenue.

Julia, a hip, downtown salesgirl at Pelham s jewelry store, finds her social life turned on its head when she is asked to deliver a necklace to the store s young heiress, Lell Pelham, on Lell s wedding day. Beguiled by Julia s earnest cluelessness and her vintage-chic vibe, Lell and her gang adopt Julia, and Eliza Doolittle her into passing as the heiress to a family fortune, just for a laugh.

Dazed by the whirlwind of trust funds, pedigrees, Cosmopolitans, and penthouses in her new world, Julia is unprepared for the ardent advances of Lell s husband or the vicious claws her new friends develop when they decide Julia is an ingrate, and demote her from society goddess to penniless cling-on...

Publishers Weekly

Riding on the designer coattails of their The Right Address, this duo-best friends since first grade-lampoon the elite they know and love/loathe with a story that's as buoyantly vapid as their stock characters. This time, the plot involves the junior jet set: a few preening Manhattan princesses decide to remake a fresh-faced girl in their own airbrushed image, Henry Higgins-style. Julia Pearce, a downtown hipster with vintage-chic style and natural beauty, works as a salesgirl in Pelham's Department Store, where she's caught the eye of the Pelham heiress, Lell. Out of winter ennui, Lell and her gaggle of girlfriends decide to take on this "charity case"-who bemusedly welcomes the attention-bestowing upon Julia a promotion, a fake pedigree and an uptown makeover. As she forsakes burgers for salads, thrift stores for Ralph Lauren and joie de vivre for too-cool cattiness, Julia's ascension from day laborer to Pelham power player affords her the chance to pursue her dream of jewelry design. But it also estranges her from longtime friends, puts off her love interest and attracts the advances of Lell's sleazy new husband, Will-predictably wreaking havoc for everyone. The authors intend to mine humor from tossing Julia to the snarks-er, sharks. But this fish-out-of-water story gasps for air, and even the authors' swipes against society feel familiar and bloodless. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

About the Author, Carrie Karasyov

CARRIE KARASYOV and JILL KARGMAN both grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, where Jill now resides with her husband and daughter, while Carrie lives in Santa Monica, California, with her husband and two sons.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Riding on the designer coattails of their The Right Address, this duo-best friends since first grade-lampoon the elite they know and love/loathe with a story that's as buoyantly vapid as their stock characters. This time, the plot involves the junior jet set: a few preening Manhattan princesses decide to remake a fresh-faced girl in their own airbrushed image, Henry Higgins-style. Julia Pearce, a downtown hipster with vintage-chic style and natural beauty, works as a salesgirl in Pelham's Department Store, where she's caught the eye of the Pelham heiress, Lell. Out of winter ennui, Lell and her gaggle of girlfriends decide to take on this "charity case"-who bemusedly welcomes the attention-bestowing upon Julia a promotion, a fake pedigree and an uptown makeover. As she forsakes burgers for salads, thrift stores for Ralph Lauren and joie de vivre for too-cool cattiness, Julia's ascension from day laborer to Pelham power player affords her the chance to pursue her dream of jewelry design. But it also estranges her from longtime friends, puts off her love interest and attracts the advances of Lell's sleazy new husband, Will-predictably wreaking havoc for everyone. The authors intend to mine humor from tossing Julia to the snarks-er, sharks. But this fish-out-of-water story gasps for air, and even the authors' swipes against society feel familiar and bloodless. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

When downtown salesgirl Julia delivers a necklace to bride-to-be heiress Lell, she gets made over-and then dumped-by Lell and her uptown harpy friends. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Countergirl gets fab new job at beloved jewelry store, but beware: the richies have claws. Karasyov and Kargman display a frighteningly accurate, up-close and personal account of Manhattan's bloodless blue-blood upper-crust. The girl they're throwing to the wolves is Julia Pearce, from California but now living the fun twentysomething life in the East Village and working the counter at the Tiffany-like Pelham's. When she's summoned to deliver a priceless necklace to a fashion mag photo-shoot for Lell Pelham, daughter of the store's owner-the powers that be don't trust those evil p.r. lackeys not to leak anything to the gossip pages-Julia catches Lell's eye with her effortless fashion sense and smarts about jewelry. In a device so unlikely and manufactured that the authors almost seem embarrassed to include it, Julia is then made their newest project. Before Julia knows it, she's been bumped upstairs to Creative and is getting invited to all the swank benefit events and weekends in the Hamptons that she could ever have dreamed of. But there's trouble brewing in Lell's circle of private-school friends. First, there's Polly, a heartless wench of a control freak who has laser-sighted vision for people's weaknesses and is convinced that she can make Julia into the season's hottest young thing-a girl's got to keep busy, after all. But Julia soon discovers that newlywed Lell is having an affair right under the nose of Will, her husband, whose anger leads him to try to seduce Julia. On the sidelines is Oscar, a sickeningly wealthy Bill Gates type who sees Julia as so much more authentic than all these other boring swells and who just may be her knight in rumpled chinos. Karasyov and Kargmanlather the pages with the designer goods and trends that keep these ADD socialites going, but don't try to invest any of it with too much importance. An airy souffle that, to its credit, never overreaches. Author tour

Book Details

Published
April 1, 2006
Publisher
Crown Publishing Group
Pages
272
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780767921275

More by Carrie Karasyov

Similar books