A letter from a reader

At 63, my summer jumpsuit just got promoted to fall

Every year around now, the storage tubs come out of the garage and the summer clothes go in. It is a ritual, it is sensible, and this year it stopped halfway, because of what happened at the church potluck on Sunday.

I was wearing my gray overalls, the exact ones I wore all summer, and three different women asked me about them between the casseroles and the dessert table. One of them said the thing I have been repeating all week.

Now that is clever. That is a whole fall outfit and you only picked one thing.

Nobody asked about these overalls in July. All it took was October, a turtleneck, and boots. So before your storage tubs swallow anything, let me write down the trick.

How it happens

Somewhere along the way, we all agreed jumpsuits and overalls are summer clothes. First cold morning, into the tub they go, and we surrender to the fall rotation. The same jeans, the same sweater, the same everything, until spring.

And the piece that made getting dressed easiest all summer, one decision, no matching, sits folded in a garage for six months doing nothing.

It is a terrible arrangement, and like most terrible arrangements, nobody remembers agreeing to it.

What I had wrong

Here is the bit I got most wrong. I thought a jumpsuit was one layer, and one layer is a summer outfit.

But a jumpsuit is not one layer. It is the MIDDLE layer. Slim cream turtleneck underneath, ankle boots below, cuffs rolled once, and the same piece that did July in sandals is suddenly the coziest, most put-together thing at the potluck.

One decision, three pieces, and none of them can clash, because the overalls are doing all the deciding.

Mine is the gray

It is from Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now.

Mine is the gray, a soft warm greige scattered with big ivory flowers and the odd tiny butterfly, printed so it looks for all the world like heirloom hand-stitching. I will be honest because I always am: it is a print, not embroidery, which is exactly why it washes easily and costs what it costs. From across a fellowship hall, it reads like something your grandmother made, in the best way.

The fit is the quiet triumph. Wide easy legs that move when you move, a loose bib top that skims everything and reports on nothing, and straps that adjust with a neat little slider so the whole thing sits exactly where you want it. There is nothing to squeeze into and nothing to hold in.

What happened at the potluck

I wore them exactly as pictured, cream turtleneck, brown boots, cuffs rolled, and the questions started at the casserole table. Where are they from, do they come in other prints, is that hand-done.

My friend Ruthann, who has opinions about everything including my hair, said I looked like a woman from one of those cozy catalogs, and she meant it as a compliment, and I took it as one.

Three things I have learned since

One. The turtleneck changes everything. Cream under greige and suddenly it is a fall outfit that looks planned. Chocolate brown works too. The overalls do not care. They go with whatever you own.

Two. One decision beats three. No waistband, no tucking, no wondering if the top goes with the bottom. The whole outfit is chosen the moment you pick it off the hanger.

Three. Comfort does not take winters off. The wide legs fit over boots, the loose top fits over knits, and I am exactly as comfortable at the potluck as I was on the porch in July.

About the price

I want to be straightforward about this, because it was the thing that made me hesitate back in the summer.

The gray is $49.95 at the moment. It was $100.00.

Since then it has worked two seasons and it is signed up for a third. Cost per wear, it is the best money my closet has seen in years, and it is about to lap every sweater I own.

I did what I imagine you are doing now and went and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some websites, which if I am honest made me trust it rather more. One woman had written, “I wore it all summer and now I wear it over sweaters. Two wardrobes, one garment.” That was the one that decided it for me.

They do a whole collection of these prints, and I have my eye on the blue stripe next.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were side by side at that dessert table and you asked me, this is what I would say.

Do not pack the jumpsuit away. Put a turtleneck under it, boots below it, and wear it straight through Thanksgiving. And if you never had one, this is the season to find out why the rest of us will not shut up about them.

Two practical things. The sale is on now with free shipping, and once this stock is gone, it is gone, so the popular prints and middle sizes disappear first. Sizes run S to 5XL.

The jumpsuit is not a summer thing. It is the middle layer. Pass it on.

Peggy