Vlindertje: een Haagsche roman

In the bright summer of The Hague, a young blonde named Ellie Van Taats prepares for the opening of the new Kurhaus season. With her brother Eduard, a self‑styled “little hussar” who doubles as a fashionable confidant, she debates every detail of a new costume—from the cut of the silk to the colour of the parasol—turning a simple fitting into a lively ritual of wit and style.

The novel opens in Ellie's elaborate boudoir, a blue‑tinted sanctuary filled with porcelain figurines, silk poufs and onyx lamps, reflecting the genteel world of the city's socialites. As she consults Eduard on the perfect combination of white serge, turquoise silk, and crisp accessories, the reader is drawn into the charms and subtle pressures of early‑twentieth‑century Dutch high society, where a dress can mean more than just fashion.