Fashion and espionage in El tiempo entre costuras, of María Dueñas

Abstract

El tiempo entre costuras is a novel of the Spanish writer María Dueñas whose narrative thread is the experience of dressmaker Sira Quiroga, as a spy, between the Spanish Civil War and World War II. This article seeks to raise the main elements of the plot that prove the role of fashion in the construction of the characters and the plot of the work, focusing on Sira Quiroga and Rosalinda Powel Fox, more specifically. The dressmaker profession becomes, at the war scenario, the perfect alibi, the possibility of a woman to infiltrate into the strategic environments of war planning, almost entirely male, without bringing any suspicion. Are also observed some female characters in their particular war experiences.