Eliza Vance is a conservator at a prestigious fashion museum, a woman who finds solace in the meticulous restoration of delicate, historic garments. When the museum acquires the lost collection of the enigmatic 19th-century couturier, Antoine Le Fèvre—a genius who vanished at the height of his fame—Eliza is tasked with preparing the “Le Fèvre Gowns” for exhibition. The dresses are unnervingly beautiful and crafted from a strange, leather-like material that defies analysis. As Eliza works, she discovers that each stitch holds a psychic echo, a fragment of the wearer’s life. She begins to experience vivid, terrifying visions of the high-society women who originally wore the gowns, witnessing their secret pains and violent ends. She learns that Le Fèvre was no mere designer; he was a “dermomancer,” a sorcerer who believed true beauty could only be achieved by weaving a person’s life, pain, and very skin into his creations. The gowns are not just clothes; they are phylacteries, and they are feeding on Eliza’s own life force to restore themselves. To survive, she must unravel the secret of Le Fèvre’s final, greatest creation—a gown said to grant immortality—before her own life becomes the final thread in his terrible, beautiful tapestry.
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