Forty years of occasion dresses, and this is the first one I have written a letter about
Forty years of occasion dresses, and this is the first one I have written a letter about
Six things the Josephine gets right that occasion dresses get wrong, from a customer who has suffered through plenty.
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 sewn a stitch in my life. What I have done is buy occasion dresses, for forty years, and regret most of them by the main course.
The one I am writing about is called the Josephine, 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 grandson’s graduation dinner, 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 occasions taught me. A dressy dress asks you to pay for the compliments. It itches, it pinches, it needs a special bra and a shawl for the parts it forgot, and by nine you are counting the minutes to the parking lot. The comfortable alternative is comfortable because it gave up, and everyone at the table can tell.
Special and suffering, or comfortable and invisible. Those were the occasion options, and I had done my years in both.
The Josephine is the first occasion dress I have owned that refuses the choice, and having worn it from a ceremony to a taxi, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. I had the returns label printed. It went in the recycling.
The lace does the special, so you do not have to
The bodice is real corded lace with the smallest scattering of sequins, the kind of detail you normally only see at three times the price. You put it on and you are done. No necklace debate, no scarf, no wondering if you tried hard enough. The dress tried for you.
The lace and the little sequins. This is what the photographs undersell.
People kept touching my sleeve to look at the lace. It looks like a dress from a boutique window and I did nothing but put it on.
Carol R., Round RockThe neckline is sheer up top, covered where it matters
The lace rises over a sheer panel to the collarbone, so you get that lovely open neckline without showing anything you would rather not. It is the most flattering trick a dress can pull at our age, and almost nobody makes it any more.
Covered without looking covered up. The sheer top half is exactly right for a woman my age.
Diane M., GeorgetownThe sleeves cover the tops of your arms, weightlessly
Little sheer embroidered sleeves to the elbow. They cover the part of the arm most of us would rather not debut at a party, they add no warmth at all, and they save you carrying a wrap that spends the whole evening sliding off your chair.
Finally an occasion dress with sleeves. I left the shawl at home for the first time in years.
Patricia L., Cedar ParkThe skirt moves like it costs more
A soft ruffle falls from the waist like a little waterfall and the whole skirt sways when you walk. It photographs beautifully, it dances if you do, and it is properly lined underneath, so it floats without ever being a worry in bright light.
The waterfall ruffle. It moves before you do.
The skirt is the whole show. It moves like water and it is fully lined, which floaty dresses never are.
Linda K., San MarcosFitted where it flatters, flowing where it forgives
The bodice holds you nicely and the skirt asks no questions. I sat through a long dinner, ate all three courses and stood for the photographs after, and I did not think about my middle once, which I believe is a personal record at an occasion.
Shaped up top, forgiving below. I ate the dinner AND liked the photographs. Both, in one dress.
Janet S., New BraunfelsFive soft colours, none of them loud
A dusty blue, a soft rose, an ivory, a gentle eucalyptus green and a twilight purple. All of them the quiet, expensive-looking end of the paint chart, so you can wear it to a wedding without frightening the bride. I started with the blue and I am circling the green.
The five of them together. Choosing is the hardest part of the whole business.
I have the rose and my sister has the blue. Every colour is soft and wearable, nothing loud.
Maureen T., PflugervilleThe Josephine, against the occasion dresses you have been buying
You can find a dressy dress for a hundred and forty dollars almost anywhere. I know, because I have a closet shelf of them, each worn once. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Lovely at seven, pinching by nine
Bare arms, and a shawl that will not stay put
Unlined, or see-through in the photographs
A neckline that shows more than you wanted
Worn once, then closet exile
Comfortable from ceremony to taxi
Sheer lace sleeves that cover the tops of the arms
Properly lined, floaty on top, honest underneath
Sheer up top, covered where it matters
Five soft colours that keep going out
About the price
The Josephine is $68.95 at the moment. It was $138.00.
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 half of what I spent on my last occasion dress bought me one I have already worn twice, with a christening booked.
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 between engagements. Never for long.
If there is a wedding, a graduation or a do of any kind in your diary, this is the dress I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there.
Peggy
JOSEPHINE | Lace Occasion Dress
- Corded lace bodice with a scatter of sequins
- Sheer illusion neckline, covered where it matters
- Elbow lace sleeves that cover the tops of the arms
- Lined waterfall skirt that moves beautifully
- Fitted bodice, forgiving flowing skirt
- Five soft colours, sizes S to 3XL
- FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Final summer sale on now. The middle sizes go first.