Symbols The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Auction Gowns: Symbols of Image, Loss, and Reclaimed Truth

What Are the Auction Gowns?

In The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the auction gowns are twelve iconic dresses that the aging film legend decides to sell at Christie’s in March 2017. The opening newspaper article (Chapter 1) announces that Evelyn Hugo will auction the gowns to raise money for breast cancer research. The auction is a public event, expected to bring in over $2 million. Among the gowns are three specifically named: the emerald-green Miranda La Conda worn to the 1959 Academy Awards, the violet soufflé and organdy scoop-neck worn to the 1962 premiere of Anna Karenina, and the navy-blue silk Michael Maddax worn when she won her Oscar in 1982. These dresses are not just clothing; they are artifacts of Evelyn’s carefully constructed public persona, marking key moments in her Hollywood career.

Where the Gowns Appear in the Novel

The auction gowns appear at several points, always as part of the public narrative surrounding Evelyn:

Chapter 1: The newspaper article “Evelyn Hugo to Auction Off Gowns” introduces the auction as news, listing the three famous gowns and revealing that Connor Cameron’s death from breast cancer motivated the sale.
Chapter 3: A gossip blog post reacts to the auction with a mix of admiration and slut-shaming, treating the gowns as relics of a scandalous life. Commenters debate Evelyn’s beauty, marriages, and philanthropy.
Chapter 96: Evelyn’s obituary mentions that Christie’s will auction her gowns for breast cancer research, reinforcing the auction as her legacy.
Chapter 97: Monique Grant’s article “Evelyn and Me” notes that “stunning photos taken just hours before her death” accompany the truth she reveals. While the article does not specify that Evelyn wore one of the auction gowns for those photos, the association links the dresses to her final act of truth-telling.
Reading Group Guide (Chapter 98): The guide suggests that book club members dress in “emerald green outfits” to emulate Evelyn’s iconic style, showing how the gowns have become cultural symbols.

How the Meaning of the Gowns Changes

The gowns start as symbols of glamour and scandal. The gossip blog reacts to the auction by focusing on Evelyn’s multiple marriages and her affair with Jack Easton, treating the dresses as evidence of a sensational life. The emerald-green gown, in particular, is mocked in a 1960 column titled “Green’s Not Your Color,” which accuses Evelyn of being jealous of Celia St. James. At that point, the gown represents public critique and perceived rivalry.

As the novel progresses, the meaning shifts toward loss and philanthropy. The auction is explicitly tied to Connor Cameron’s death from breast cancer. The obituary frames the auction as charity work, alongside Evelyn’s donations to battered women’s shelters and LGBTQ+ causes. The gowns become vehicles for doing good, but they still belong to a public narrative that hides Evelyn’s private truth.

Finally, in Monique’s article, the gowns become part of reclaiming her narrative. By auctioning them, Evelyn lets go of the objects that defined her public image. The “stunning photos” taken just before her death may show her wearing a gown one last time, but the act of selling them ensures they no longer define her. The auction sets the stage for her true legacy: the revelation of her bisexuality and her lifelong love for Celia St. James. The gowns are no longer armor; they are a final performance that she controls.

Character Connections

Evelyn Hugo: The gowns are physical extensions of her constructed identity. Each dress corresponds to a milestone in her career or her marriages. By auctioning them, she takes ownership of her story.
Monique Grant: Monique writes the article that reveals the truth behind the gowns. She frames the auction as part of Evelyn’s public narrative, contrasting it with the private confession.
Celia St. James: The emerald-green gown is directly connected to a night when Evelyn avoided Celia after Celia won an award. The gown thus symbolizes the hidden tension in their relationship.
Harry Cameron: As Evelyn’s producer and husband, Harry helped craft the image that the gowns represent. The wedding gown she wore to marry him is a private memory that contrasts with the public auction.
Connor Cameron: Her daughter’s death from breast cancer is the stated reason for the auction, making the gowns symbols of Evelyn’s grief and her attempt to turn loss into legacy.
Don Adler: The divorce from Don coincides with the period when Evelyn’s career and image were under scrutiny; the gowns from that era—like the one from the 1959 Oscars—carry the weight of that public collapse.

Theme Connections

The auction gowns draw together several of the novel’s central themes:

Identity and Reinvention: Each gown marks a phase in Evelyn’s reinvention—from brunette to blonde, from newcomer to Oscar winner. The auction itself is the final reinvention: from actress to truth-teller.
Love and Sacrifice: Evelyn auctioned her dresses to honor Connor’s memory, sacrificing a piece of her personal history for a cause her daughter would have supported. She also sacrificed the comfort of keeping these objects in order to be honest.
Secrecy and Truth: The gowns are part of the public secret—they distract from who Evelyn really is. By auctioning them, she removes the distraction and creates space for the truth about her sexuality and her love for Celia.
Fame and Privacy: The gowns are inherently public items; they were worn in front of cameras and gossiped about in columns. The auction invites the public to own a piece of her fame, but it also allows Evelyn to control what remains private.
Marriage as Performance: Several of the auctioned gowns were worn to events where Evelyn appeared with a husband. The wedding gown she wore to marry Harry Cameron (off-white silk) and the cream-colored suit for Robert Jamison are performative costumes. Selling them undermines the performance.

Four Study Questions with Answers

1. What is the symbolic importance of the emerald-green Miranda La Conda gown that Evelyn wore to the 1959 Academy Awards?

This gown represents the public perception of Evelyn’s rivalry with Celia St. James. A 1960 column titled “Green’s Not Your Color” used the dress to imply Evelyn was jealous of Celia’s success. The gown becomes a symbol of the hidden tension between the two women—a tension that Evelyn later reveals was actually heartbreak, not envy. By auctioning this gown, Evelyn reclaims the narrative around that night.

2. Why does Evelyn choose to auction her gowns for breast cancer research rather than leaving them to a museum or family member?

The auction is directly motivated by the death of her daughter Connor from breast cancer. In the opening newspaper article, the reporter notes that Connor’s passing “is no doubt the influence for the auction.” By turning her gowns into a fundraising event, Evelyn transforms objects of her own vanity and career into a philanthropic act that honors her daughter and gives the auction a higher purpose beyond celebrity.

3. How do the auction gowns reflect the theme of identity and reinvention across Evelyn’s life?

Each gown marks a turning point in Evelyn’s constructed identity. The emerald-green gown represents her early Oscar snub and the beginning of her public rivalry with Celia. The violet gown at the Anna Karenina premiere signals her move into producing and more serious roles. The navy-blue Oscar gown caps her greatest professional achievement. Auctioning them allows her to shed those past selves and present her final, authentic identity: a bisexual woman who loved Celia St. James.

4. In what way does the auction function as a narrative frame for Evelyn’s confession about her relationship with Celia?

The auction announcement in Chapter 1 sets up the public, sensationalized version of Evelyn’s life that readers expect. The gossip blog in Chapter 3 confirms that the public is hungry for scandal. Only after the auction is complete and Evelyn has died does Monique reveal the truth in Chapter 97: Evelyn was “madly in love with fellow actress Celia St. James.” The auction thus serves as a decoy—a way for Evelyn to control the conversation about her life one last time before the true story emerges.