Lamda Literary Award finalist for Debut Fiction
The Devil Wears Prada meets The Bell Jar in this story of a wide-eyed Ivy League grad who discovers that his dream of “making it” at leading New York City fashion magazine Régine may well be his undoing….
“Crackles with energy...” (Vanity Fair)
Elián San Jamar knew from childhood that he was destined for a better life than the one his working-class multiracial parents share in Texas—a life inspired by Régine’s pages. A full ride to Yale opens the door to a more glamorous world, and he quickly befriends Madeline and Dorian, both scions of incredible wealth and privilege. With their help, he reinvents himself, and after four decadent years he graduates as Ethan St. James. But reality hits hard when Ethan arrives at Régine and is relegated to the lowest rung of the ladder.
Mordantly funny and emotionally ruthless, An Innocent Fashion is the saga of a true millennial—naïve, idealistic, struggling with his identity and sexuality—trying to survive in an industry, and in a city, notorious for attracting new graduates only to chew them up and spit them out. Oscillating between melodrama and whip-smart sarcasm, pretentiousness and heartbreaking vulnerability, increasingly disillusioned with Régine and Madeline and Dorian, Ethan begins to unravel.
As the narratives of his conflicted childhood, cloistered collegiate experience, and existential crisis braid together, this deeply moving coming-of-age novel for the twenty-first century spirals toward a devastating realization: You can follow your dreams, but what happens if your dreams are just not enough?
Vanity Fair | Out magazine | People magazine | ELLE | Rookie magazine | The Guardian
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“Writing in a fervently literary style that flirts openly with the traditions of Salinger, Plath, and Fitzgerald, Hernández is a diamond-sharp satirist and a bracingly fresh chronicler of the heartbreak of trying to grow up.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“An unapologetic view into the underbelly of fashion media…”
— People magazine
“Wry and literary… His characters are vivid… victims of their affected apathy… Madeline, Dorian and Ethan are eminently believable.”
— Washington Post
“Hernández’s writing is beautiful, and the story offers a searing take on privilege, glamour, and the socialite scene. Charming and astute.”
— Travel + Leisure
"A tussle of identity politics set against a background of fashion...”
— The Guardian
“By turns mordantly dark and charmingly funny, R. J. Hernández’s debut is a modern fable with a timeless heart.”
— Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
“The Devil Wears Prada for millennials… Explores the magazine industry through a different lens than past insider tomes… With a sure hand, Hernández leads his readers into an overlapping world of Ivy-League pedigree and corporate hustle.”
— Vanity Fair
“Compelling… Entertaining… Hernández’s dark view of innocence makes him a novelist to watch.”
— Telegraph
“A story about dreams, and how the one that saves you today can just as easily crush you tomorrow.”