I Ordered One Moana Because I Liked the Colours. Three Weeks Later I Had Worn Two of Them Eleven Times.

A note from a reader who was not sure she would wear a bold print, and what happened over the next three weeks.

By Elaine • Hervey Bay, Queensland

Posted October 2026 • 5 min read

How the Moana arrives: wrapped in tissue, with the Portsea tag on the twine.

I am 62 years old, and I very nearly talked myself out of the dress I have worn more than anything else this spring.

Let me explain, because I suspect a few of you do the same thing I do.

A friend from my walking group put me onto Portsea Boutique. I walk every morning with Teddy, our little dog from the rescue shelter, and the conversation on those walks wanders from the weather to the family to clothes. She mentioned a dress called the Moana, and I looked it up when I got home.

I liked the ocean colours straight away. Then I did what I always do. I wondered whether I would really wear a print like that, or whether it would hang in the wardrobe while I reached for something plain again. I have been retired for two years, and I am fussy about what earns its place. If I cannot wear it to the shops in flat sandals and still feel neat enough for dinner out, it does not stay. So I ordered one, to be safe.

The print everyone else noticed first

The first time I wore it was to lunch with my sister, Wendy. Wendy is 66 and very direct about clothes. She looked up when I walked in and said, “That's lovely on you. You should wear those colours more often.” From Wendy, that is high praise.

A week later my hairdresser asked where it was from. And on our Sunday evening video call, my daughter Emma, who lives in Brisbane, stopped me halfway through a sentence: “Hang on, Mum, stand up so I can see the whole dress.”

The thing that matters most to me, though, is the room around the middle. I am not looking for a dress that pulls me in at the waist. I want it to fall past my tummy and hips, and to stay comfortable through a long lunch. The Moana does exactly that.

I don't need a dress to pull me in. I just want it to fall nicely and leave me comfortable when I sit down.

Then I did something silly

About two weeks in, I ordered a second dress from the collection, in a different print. I chose it on purpose to go with the same sandals and the same bag, so there would be no thinking involved in the mornings.

My husband Peter started joking that I was wearing the same dress every day. So, half to prove him wrong, I started keeping a tally in my diary. Eleven days in three weeks, between the two dresses: the shops, coffee after the morning walk, a birthday and two dinners out. Peter was not entirely wrong.

Two prints, one pair of flat sandals, one bag. The tally lives in the diary.

I bought the first one for the colours. I bought the second because the first was always either on me or waiting to be washed.

Now, about the price

The Moana is A$79.95 right now, down from A$319.95, because Portsea Boutique is clearing its summer collection as the shop moves online.

I judge clothes on how often I actually wear them. I had been looking at dresses at Sussan and Katies, where a printed midi is A$119.95 and A$79.99 at the moment. What mattered to me was whether I would wear it on an ordinary Tuesday, not just once on holiday.

I also read the reviews properly this time. 4.2 stars from more than 300 women, and the same story as mine over and over: it quietly became the dress they reach for.

And the offer works across the whole collection. Two dresses take 15 percent off your order, and it climbs from there, up to 30 percent.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If we were having coffee after the morning walk, this is what I would say.

I would say that a bold print is far less bold once it is on. It is the plain dresses that make us disappear, and most of us have a wardrobe full of them.

I would tell you to stop worrying about whether you are “a print person”. Wear it with the sandals you already own and see who says something first. In my case it was my sister, my hairdresser and my daughter, in that order.

And I would tell you to order two prints, not one, partly for the discount and mostly because you will be back for the second anyway.

While the sizes are still in stock.

— Elaine