Silk for the Feed Dogs

Author(s): Jackie Mallon

Location(s): Milan, London

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Contemporary

Silk for the Feed Dogs illuminates a world the author knows intimately in a way it hadn’t been described before: with thoughtfulness, profundity and humor.

Kat Connelly, innovative designer and introspective daughter of an Irish farmer, is disappointed with her first job in fashion. She copies catwalk looks for a London garmento who is reliant on two things to survive: self medication and cheap Chinese production. Kat feels the lure of a higher aesthetic beckoning and escapes to Milan. As Italy’s imminent smoking ban looms darkly over the land, Kat’s personal world lights up: design and beauty are all around, dazzling and seducing, not to mention the overwhelming Italian male libido. She has claimed her slice of the bella vita and with it a sense of belonging she has yearned for since childhood.

Of course, the bella vita comes at a price. When Kat is invited into the impenetrable House of Adriani to design their high-profile collection, she throws a cast-iron hierarchy into turmoil. Some will do anything to see her fall… Jackie Mallon drew upon her decade’s experience to bring to life the assorted grand maestros, sycophants, oddballs, and jesters that populate Kat’s life.

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