Forty summers of dresses that were either sacks or wallpaper. This is a letter about the third kind
Forty summers of dresses that were either sacks or wallpaper. This is a letter about the third kind
Six things the Emma gets right that summer dresses get wrong, from a customer who read the whole thing twice.
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 have never made a dress in my life. What I have done is buy summer dresses, for forty years, and be let down by most of them by the second wash.
The one I am writing about is called the Emma, 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 library book club, 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 summers taught me. Easy summer dresses come in two piles. The plain sack, cool and comfortable and completely without personality, and the busy floral, pretty on the hanger and by lunchtime you are a sofa. I bought from both piles for years and felt like a stranger in each of them.
A sack or wallpaper. Those seemed to be the summer options, and I had quietly settled for the sack.
The Emma is the first summer dress I have owned that is neither, and having gone over it like a suspicious woman goes over a bargain, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived, crinkles and all. I did not iron it. You are not supposed to.
The print is one drawn line, not a field
Down the centre front runs a single column of little black daisies, drawn by hand, on a soft lilac ground. That is the whole print. It reads as a piece of art rather than a pattern, and it is the reason people ask about it, because it looks like somebody decided something.
The daisies, up close. One line of them, and plain lilac everywhere else.
The single line of daisies is what everyone comments on. It looks like an illustration, not a print from a factory.
Carol R., Round RockThe shape sits high and falls loose
The dress is shaped from a seam just below the bust, and from there it falls straight and easy past everything you would rather it skimmed. There is no waist to fight, no cling anywhere, and it still hangs like a dress rather than a tent, because the seam gives it a line.
It falls from under the bust straight over my middle. Comfortable and it still looks like a proper dress.
Diane M., GeorgetownThe straps keep everything underneath a secret
Sleeveless for the heat, but the straps are properly wide, so nothing you are wearing underneath makes an appearance. Wear it on its own in August and throw a little cardigan over in October. Both work, and neither needs planning.
The neckline and one strap. Wide enough to keep secrets.
Finally a sleeveless dress with straps wide enough for a real bra. I have stopped worrying about it entirely.
Patricia L., Cedar ParkIt never sees an iron
The fabric is finely crinkled on purpose, so it comes out of the wash, out of a suitcase, out of a heap on the chair, looking exactly as it is meant to look. I have not ironed it once, and I do not intend to start.
Rolled it into a carry-on for a week away and wore it three times. Never touched an iron.
Linda K., San MarcosIt pulls on, and that is the whole procedure
No zip, no buttons, no reaching round the back for anything. Over the head, a shake, done, in less time than it takes the coffee to drip. On a hot morning that is not a small mercy.
On over my head and out the door. It is the dress I grab when I cannot be bothered, and I still get compliments.
Janet S., New BraunfelsHonest sizing, and it goes everywhere
Small to 5XL, the same easy shape the whole way up. Mine has done book club, the market, a hospital visit and a Sunday lunch, and it read right at every one. Soft lilac goes with more than you would think, including a plain white cardigan and a pair of flat sandals, which is my entire summer.
On the wardrobe door, ready for the next hot Thursday.
True to size at a 3XL, which almost never happens. It has become my whole summer.
Maureen T., PflugervilleThe Emma, against the summer dresses you have been buying
You can find an easy summer dress for a hundred dollars almost anywhere. I know, because I have bought a great many of them. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
A plain sack, or busy wallpaper
Clings at the middle, or hangs like a tent
Skinny straps that show everything
Creased by lunchtime
Zips and buttons on a hot morning
One drawn line of daisies on soft lilac
Shaped high, falls loose and easy
Wide straps that keep secrets
Crinkled on purpose, never ironed
Pulls straight on over your head
About the price
The Emma is $49.95 at the moment. It was $100.00.
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 middle sizes were already going when I looked again 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.
Folded, unironed, ready. That is the whole care routine.
If you want one summer dress that is cool, easy and still looks like you chose it, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there.
Peggy
EMMA | Lilac Daisy Midi Dress
- One drawn column of daisies on soft lilac
- Shaped under the bust, falls loose and easy
- Wide straps that hide what needs hiding
- Crinkled texture, never needs ironing
- Pulls straight on, no zips or buttons
- Sizes S to 5XL
- FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Final summer sale on now. The middle sizes go first.