Love, Loss and What I Wore

by Nora Ephron, Delia Ephron, Ilene Beckerman (Creator)

A play of monologues and ensemble pieces about women, clothes, and memory covering all the important subjects - mothers, prom dresses, mothers, buying bras, mothers, hating purses and why we only wear black. Based on the bestselling book be Ilene Beckerman.

5W (doubling, flexible casting)

Genres: Plays, Nonfiction, Feminism, Short Stories, Humor, Drama, Summer Reads

51 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

Nora Ephron was an American journalist, film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, and blogger.

She was best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes wrote with her sister, Delia Ephron.

Reviews

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully girly and familiarly sad. I was instantly sweating in a kohl's dressing room with my mom in 2009 while Hey, Soul Sister by Train blasts and every mother-daughter in there bursts into violent, camisole wearing flames. The nuance and diversity of experiences this play lacks could be brilliantly redone, by someone like Carmen Maria Machado, today. Nora Ephron could've run Apple but Steve Jobs never could've written ten monologues about his turtle neck that painfully capture the femme coming of age experience told through clothes!

[talia ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

in my nora ephron era. and i'm happy :)

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this in a sitting, it has the Ephron lilt. I can see a lot of great audition monologues coming out of this, as soon as I finished it I turned around and bought a copy for myself.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

so so so good. most delicious vignettes centered around, well, love loss & what they wore. silly to serious to sad. and endlessly girly.

[Malena · Rating 3 out of 5]

el epítome de la feminidad que hay más mujer que vivir tu vida a través de tu ropa? nada

[alex. · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so relatable in so many ways … so worth the read imo

[Emma O'Brien]

This play, based off a collection of short stories, is very close to my heart. Love, Loss and What I Wore is a woman's reflection on her life through her clothes and all the memories that are tied to them. This play is told in monologue form and can be read in sections which is good for lesson organization. I like this play for middle schoolers because, while we don't want people to judge us for our outsides, some of us find several aspects of our identity in the things we wear. This story, at its core, is a coming of age story as a woman describes how she found herself and re-found herself over and over again throughout her life every time she reinvented who she wanted to be. An aspect of identity that I want students to pick up on is the fact that people change who they are all the time and that's just a part of life. With this play I would be really interested in having students read this and compare it to an article about school uniforms. They could write an argument describing why clothes can be a significant aspect of defining who you are as a person.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if I can’t remember anything else, best believe I can always remember what I wore on any given day.

I love stories told through clothes and the link between clothing and memory and the way that we all foster relationships with different pieces of clothing in our lives - how cool is it that a piece of fabric can mean so much!

[Lindsey Neff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, sad, and relatable. Super quick read about clothes, women, and their stories.

First play I’ve read since Shakespeare in high school. I thoroughly enjoyed!

[Emily Kiefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

tales of girlhood and womanhood told in a uniquely beautiful way!

[katie carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literally perfect // relatable to every woman on some level, it felt like conversations and scenes of my life were written down so I could relive them and the feelings forever. Love and loss are huge feelings and we don’t talk nearly enough about how the best pieces in our closets give us a chance to hold those feelings in our hands, then put them on. Here’s to the perfect worn-out tee shirts, favorite jeans, shoes that hurt too much to wear or get rid of, and the tagged items that your mom bought, hanging in the closet, never to be worn.

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by queen Carley Thorne and seeing as I am forever in my Nora Ephron era I ordered a copy from this weird theater website since that seems to be the only way you can find the play.

I don't read plays a lot but this one was really cool and the original cast described on the first page was stacked. Wish I got to see the performance.

But I liked the concept and read it in one sitting at the beach.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read and loved the references to fashions of my youth. As a whole play the vignettes are hit and miss. Some I loved.

[Erin Kohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be amazing live. Fav characters: Lisa and Amanda (naturally)

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a person is cast in a play, a person must read the play! So excited to be playing Gingy at The Lakewood Playhouse this May.

[e.s. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars. Loved it when they talked about their relationship to their moms and how it affected the way they all interact with fashion 🥹

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ugh I loved. Let’s go girlhood. 4.8🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original Review (5 stars): I loved every second of this play. The writing was witty and relatable. I love clothes and have always had a deep connection with the things I wear, and this play perfectly captured those feelings. I laughed, I cried, I can’t recommend this enough!

Re-read Review (3 stars): I enjoyed this, but I really didn't love it as much as I remember loving it the first time around. The writing was fun and I still liked how easily these universal scenes around clothing were created, but something just felt missing.

[Emily Weathers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect this to be so poignant! It’s one of those ideas that sneaks up behind and really gets you. I startled the hub by laughing out loud (couldn’t gain control!) after he dozed off. But then I also found myself trying to rein the tears in, waiting in the dentist’s office. Lesson: save this one for an evening on the couch.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I identified with this so much. I would love to direct this

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nora Ephron's voice is so distinctive and inspiring to me. Women's stories are so important and wonderful and this is aces.

[Brooke Eubanks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hardest clothes to get rid of are the ones we remember wearing during important, transformative, or painful moments of our lives. This is exactly an exploration of that—and the intersections clothes have with those emotions, relationships, and women being inspired by and within our relationships with other women. I also loved the short years she spent at Simmons (my grad school!) and in the Boston area. Succinct, sweet. Four stars.

[Ali Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing show-stopping loved boots the house everyone read immediately

Seriously so good. Stand-alone memoir-esque vignettes/monologues about the feminine experience, relationships, maternal relationships, and self-identity all centered around clothes. So fun to read, actually giggled to myself and cried at times. Such a unique way to present a raw depiction of femininity.

[Simay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going on my top 10 books/reads of all time. What a clever, heartfelt, gutting and funny play. Ephron impresses me with every move. So so well done! I’m going to re-read this many times I can feel it.

[Kristin Boldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ephron sisters' take on Beckerman's arty memoir in dresses. Funnier than the work it's based on, with additional material worth reading for.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

so very relatable and so very hilarious

[Abbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

i was prescribed media that is empowering to my self image lmao. this was just the fix.

considering photographing my clothes as artifacts of my memories. feeling artistically inspired, stay tuned.

[grace fleming de torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

My poodle skirt, my poodle skirt 💔

[Millie Keogh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked not loved.

[Margot DV]

the importance of the ordinary, the memories that come from objects <3 I was honestly surprised with how much I connected with this play, now I’m thinking about clothes from my own life