A Letter From a Reader: The Christening (Elaine)
Three women asked me about this dress at my great-nephew's christening. One of them was the minister's wife.
What I told them on the church lawn, about the first big floral print I have worn in forty years, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Elaine · Customer · Hervey Bay, Queensland · 4 min read
I have been sitting on this for a couple of weeks. I am not one for putting things on the internet, but three different women asked me about this dress on the one morning, and it started to feel a bit mean keeping it to myself.
It was my great-nephew's christening, at the little white weatherboard church out past Maryborough where half our family has been christened, married or both. Afterwards everyone stood about on the lawn under the jacaranda with a cup of tea, and that is where it happened.
The first was my cousin Pam, who asked if it was new. The second was a woman I had never met, who came over from the other side of the lawn especially. The third was the minister's wife, who is not, as a rule, a woman who comments on frocks. She said it looked like spring had come to church.
On the church lawn after the service. Peter took this one.
The dress is called the Tara, from Portsea Boutique, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. Here is what I told all three of them.
I had not worn big flowers in forty years
My mother always said big prints were for tall women, and that a little woman in big flowers looks like a sofa. I am five foot three, so for forty years it has been small prints, polka dots and a great deal of navy. To every christening, every wedding, every funeral. Navy.
The Tara is covered in great coral peonies the size of a saucer, on a soft cream and sage background. I very nearly did not order it. What changed my mind was the background. It is soft, so the flowers do not shout. From across the lawn it reads as one gentle wash of colour, not a busy pattern.
The morning of the christening, on the kitchen table, before I lost my nerve.
It is comfortable for a long day
A christening is a long day for a woman our age. Standing in the church, standing on the lawn, then lunch at my sister-in-law's until four. One gathered seam at the waist gives the Tara a shape, and from there it falls loose to the ankle. Nothing pulls, nothing clings across the middle, and I never once thought about it.
The fabric is soft and light, and it came out of the car at the church without a crease. It was twenty-nine degrees by eleven o'clock and I was perfectly comfortable on that lawn.
The fabric up close. Soft, a little crinkled, and the peonies are printed right through.
The things I did not know I needed
A V-neck that is modest but not prim. Three-quarter sleeves that cover the tops of my arms without looking like I am hiding them. And side pockets. I kept a hanky and the car keys in them all day, which meant I did not have to carry a handbag around the lawn juggling a cup and saucer.
Back on the wardrobe door that evening. It has been out three times since.
Why I went back for a second one
The Tara is one of a whole collection of these long floral dresses, all the same easy shape, from S right up to 5XL. White lilies on ivory, painted roses, peach roses on cream. The week after the christening I went back for the Anne, the white lilies, because white lilies were in my wedding bouquet. Pam has ordered the Tara. I have told her she is not to wear it to the same thing as me.
The Anne, the morning it arrived.
See The Vintage Floral Maxi Collection →About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The Tara is A$69.95, and it was A$131.00. The Anne is A$75.95. The boutique says the spring sale is about making room for the summer stock, selling directly, with no middleman taking a cut. That is their arithmetic, not mine. I have paid more than that for a navy dress nobody has ever remembered me in.
If somebody once told you big flowers were not for a woman your size, and you have been wearing navy to every family occasion since, this is where I would start.
— Elaine
The Tara & The Vintage Floral Maxi Collection
- Tara: big coral peonies on cream and sage, A$69.95
- Anne: big white lilies on ivory, A$75.95
- V-neck and three-quarter sleeves
- Gathered waist seam, relaxed skirt to the ankle, side pockets
- Sizes S to 5XL, free delivery across Australia
Spring sale on now. The middle sizes are already going.