My summer tops were polyester pretending to be breezy
My summer tops were polyester pretending to be breezy. This is a letter about the one that is not
Six things a real linen top gets right that forty Texas summers of tops got wrong, from a woman who thought being cool and being dressed were two different goals.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
I am 63, I have lived in Austin most of my life, and I have never sold a stitch of clothing to anybody. What I have done, for about forty summers, is buy tops that promised to be breezy and were not. Pretty on the hanger, shrink-wrap by ten in the morning. So this is not a review. It is a woman who finally found the top that does what the others promised, saying why.
The top I am writing about is called the Rowena, from Iris and 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 the woman who runs the flower stall at our Saturday farmers market, who hauls buckets in the heat all morning without ever looking hot and bothered, 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.
Mine, at the market. I asked her about it over the zinnias.
Here is what forty summers taught me about summer tops. They come in two piles. The synthetic ones, which look breezy on the rack and cling like plastic wrap the moment the temperature does what Texas temperatures do. And the genuinely cool ones, which for years seemed to mean shapeless or see-through or both. Somewhere along the way I accepted that from June to October a woman simply glows through it, and that was that.
Tops that looked breezy and stuck by ten, or tops that breathed and looked like bed sheets. I glowed through it for years.
The Rowena is the first top I have owned that refuses both piles, and having worn it through market Saturdays, errands and one long lunch on a patio in September, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. One wooden button, a little collar, and that unmistakable linen weave.
It is real linen, and air actually moves through it
Not linen-look, not a blend of mysteries. Linen, with the slubby weave you can see up close. Air passes through it, so it never turns into plastic wrap at the first bead of heat. With the white I wear a simple white cami underneath, as one does, and I am still cooler than I ever was in the synthetics.
Wore it through an entire August cookout and stayed presentable. That has never once happened to me before.
Dorothy K., San AntonioThe V sits flat, and one wooden button holds the whole thing
The neckline is a soft V with two little fold-back points, like a collar that decided not to make a fuss, anchored by one round wooden button. It frames your face, takes a necklace beautifully, and does not gape when you lean over the melons at the market.
The V, the little collar points, and the one button doing all the work.
Finally a V-neck that stays where it was put. The little wooden button gets compliments on its own.
Rita M., WacoThe cut skims instead of clinging
The shoulders are dropped and the body falls loose to a curved hem at the hip, so it skims past the middle instead of reporting on it. Worn loose over jeans it looks relaxed on purpose, not resigned. Nothing to tug down, nothing to arrange, nothing sticking to your back at the checkout.
Skims everything I want skimmed. I have stopped doing that little tug-and-fan dance in parking lots.
Fran H., Round RockThe sleeves stop at the elbow, where sleeves belong
Not the cap sleeve that covers nothing, not the long sleeve that defeats the point. Elbow length, with a neat rolled cuff, covering exactly the stretch of arm most of us would rather cover while staying cool. Whoever decided that deserves a thank-you note.
The sleeve, close up. Elbow length, rolled cuff, no debate.
The elbow sleeve is everything. Covered where I want covering, cool everywhere else.
Elaine S., New BraunfelsOne top runs half the closet
Jeans, white pants, a denim skirt, linen trousers. The Rowena goes over all of it without a second thought, dressed up with sandals and earrings or straight into errands. I stopped standing in front of the closet negotiating. The white one simply wins most mornings.
I have worn it to church, to the lake, and to my granddaughter's recital in the same week. Nobody the wiser.
Judy P., LubbockSix colors, and honest sizes from S to 5XL
The white I own, and it comes in beige, black, red, a soft green and a navy I am circling, all in the same relaxed shape from an S to a 5XL, which I wish more places would bother with. The flower-stall woman has three of them, which is how I know how this ends.
White, green, navy. Same top, three moods, one Texas.
I am a 3XL and it drapes exactly like it does on the small sizes. Bought the navy a week later.
Marlene T., TempleThe Rowena, against the tops you have been glowing through
Nobody means to build a closet of polyester pretenders. They just look so promising on the hanger. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Sticking to your back by ten in the morning
Clinging exactly where you want skimming
Necklines that gape when you lean
Sleeves that are always the wrong length
One wearing, straight into the hamper
Real linen that lets the air through
A relaxed cut that skims past the middle
A flat V held by one wooden button
Elbow sleeves with a neat rolled cuff
Cool at the market, presentable at lunch
About the price
The Rowena is $38.95 at the moment. It was $78.00.
I am careful with money and I will not pretend otherwise, so I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that they are a small shop selling directly, so there is no department store taking a cut in the middle, and the sale is on now. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that real linen at under forty dollars made me suspicious enough to read everything before ordering, and that I have since been back for a second look at the navy.
I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews first. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
In the window light you can see the weave doing its work. That is where the cool comes from.
If your summer tops are also polyester pretending, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there.
Peggy
ROWENA | RELAXED LINEN V-NECK TOP
- ✓Real linen with a lightweight, breathable weave
- ✓Soft split V-neck held by one wooden button
- ✓Relaxed cut that skims, never clings
- ✓Elbow-length sleeves with rolled cuffs
- ✓Pairs with jeans, pants and skirts alike
- ✓Six colors · sizes S to 5XL
- ✓FREE shipping & 100% happiness guarantee
Sale on now. Once this stock is gone, it is gone.