The seamstress the story revolves around arrives in secret at a fancy palace. We soon find out the woman who she will be making dresses for is actually the prince. Yes, you read that right. This graphic novel is about a prince who has a secret and the seamstress who keeps it. He wants nothing more than to wear dresses, cross-dressing and going out on the town. You can likely guess what comes next. When asked why he wears girl’s clothes he replies, “Some days I feel like I’m actually a princess”. He also says, “my whole life is other people deciding what’s acceptable. When I put on a dress, I get to decide what’s silly”. When worried he makes the incredibly unfortunate comment, “What happens if she discovers who I really am?” And the seamstress joins in to really bring the message home, “When I saw you last night something clicked. You really are Lady Crystallis. It was you, but you were more. Bigger. More amazing. You were like a goddess version of yourself. It was magic” to which he replies, “You know, I felt it too!”. This culminates by saying, “This is who he is”. We should also say that the illustrated format makes this whole thing especially disturbing, especially considering the audience that will inevitably end up in front of this book.
Late in the book the prince, while dressed as a woman, gets completely drunk and a man uses the opportunity to make an advance on him (thinking him to be a woman). The book takes an unexpected turn when the cross-dressing prince and the seamstress almost and then ultimately do embrace and kiss.
And then, at the end, the large, macho king himself comes out in a fashion show dressed as a woman along with his guards… so there’s that.
There is plenty more here. Early in the book a woman comes to the dressmaker and asks her to “make me look like the devil’s wench” to which she obliges, creating a disturbing looking dress (this is what brings the dressmaker to the cross-dressing prince’s attention). While at a ball, a mother comments, “I brought all four of my daughters. I figure one of them will be sloppy enough to bag the Prince”. A woman is shown smoking a cigar. A man comments, “Looking at all these princesses makes a man want to blow off a little steam, right?”
There is a reference to absinthe. We read “oh my God”, naked body, idiot and “bloody hell”.
A couple images feel a bit revealing (e.g., a man holding a woman at a ballet).