I have been the sensible dress at forty years of parties. This is a letter about resigning
I have been the sensible dress at forty years of parties. This is a letter about resigning
Six things the Delphine gets right that party dresses get wrong, from a customer with a milestone birthday coming.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
I am Peggy, I am 63, and I want to say at the start that I do not work for anybody and I am not a party person by trade. What I have been, for forty years, is the woman in the sensible navy at other people’s parties, clapping along from a chair.
The dress I am writing about is called the Delphine, from Iris & Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw it on a woman at my friend Ruth’s 70th birthday party, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Here is what forty years of parties taught me. Party dresses for women our age come in two piles. The sensible pile, navy, careful, invisible in every photograph. And the trying-too-hard pile, tight, short, itchy, cut for somebody thirty years younger and worn with regret by ten o’clock. I picked sensible so many times it became a personality.
Sensible and invisible, or sparkly and sorry. Those were the party options, and I had settled into my chair.
The Delphine is the first party dress I have owned that refuses both piles, and having danced in it, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. I laughed out loud, and then I tried it on, and stopped laughing.
The fringe does the dancing
Fine shimmering strands fall in layers from shoulder to hem, and they move a half-second after you do. Walk to the buffet and the dress is having a wonderful time. Even standing still you look like the fun one, which after forty years of navy I can report is a very pleasant promotion.
The fringe over the sequins. It moves if you so much as think about music.
I moved my arm to wave and the whole dress shimmered. I have never had so many compliments in one evening.
Carol R., Round RockThere is a proper dress underneath
Beneath the fringe is a real lined sequin dress, so nothing anywhere is see-through and nothing relies on hope. The sequins glint through the strands like light on water. It is a party dress built like a garment, not a costume.
Fully lined underneath, which surprised me. It feels substantial, not flimsy, and nothing shows that should not.
Diane M., GeorgetownThe tiers skim, they do not cling
The fringe falls in soft staggered layers, so the dress skims straight over the middle and the hips instead of reporting on them. It is fitted enough to have a shape and forgiving enough to eat cake in, which is the entire job description of a party dress.
The neckline and the first tier. Flattering up top, forgiving everywhere else.
The layers skim right over my middle. I looked shaped, not squeezed, in every photograph.
Patricia L., Cedar ParkIt is made for the whole evening
Light as a whisper, nothing scratchy, nothing digging, no straps to renegotiate every hour. I was still comfortable when the taxi came, and I was one of the last to want it. That has never once been true of me at a party.
Danced for three hours at my granddaughter’s wedding reception. Forgot I was wearing it, remembered every time someone complimented it.
Linda K., San MarcosFour colours, from quiet silver to a very good black
The silver-white I own, a warm gold, a soft pink and a black that would earn its keep every December for the rest of your life. All the same dress, so you can pick your level of entrance.
The four of them together. The black is calling several of my friends as we speak.
I have the black for winter parties and now the gold. They earn their place in the closet twice over.
Janet S., New BraunfelsIt fills a diary
Mine already has a milestone birthday, a retirement dinner and New Year’s Eve booked, because once you own the fun dress, occasions find it. And the sizing is honest, from a small to a 5XL, the same skimming shape throughout.
Bought it for one party. It has now done four, and it gets requested. My dress gets requested.
Maureen T., PflugervilleThe Delphine, against the party dresses you have been buying
You can find a sparkly dress for a hundred and ten dollars almost anywhere. I know, because I have talked myself out of a closet full of them. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Sensible and invisible, or tight and itchy
Unlined, and relying on luck
Cling that edits your dinner
Uncomfortable by ten o’clock
Worn once, then closet exile
Fringe that dances and catches every light
A proper lined sequin dress underneath
Soft tiers that skim, never cling
Light and easy for the whole evening
Four colours with full diaries ahead
About the price
The Delphine is $54.95 at the moment. It was $110.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that this is their final summer sale as they close this chapter of the shop, and once this stock is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that the silver and the black were already thinning in the middle sizes when I looked last week.
I also did what I imagine you are doing now 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. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
Resting between parties. Its diary is fuller than mine.
If there is a party in your future and you have done your years in sensible navy, this is the dress I would put in your hands myself, while your size and colour are still there.
Peggy
DELPHINE | Fringe Party Dress
- Shimmering fringe that moves with every step
- Proper lined sequin dress underneath
- Staggered tiers that skim, never cling
- Light and comfortable for the whole evening
- Flattering deep V with soft shoulder straps
- Four colours, sizes S to 5XL
- FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Final summer sale on now. Silver and black go first.