The lace is just enough, and no more

This is the thing I would tell you if I only had a minute. What caught my eye on the pier was the lace. On the Linnea a delicate lace trim traces the front of the dress, from the neckline down. Not an enormous amount of it, just enough to make the dress look a little more special than a plain summer dress, and quietly feminine without trying to look younger than I am. The V-neck is soft and the sleeves are softly shaped, so you do not need a complicated necklace. The lace already does the work. I wore mine to the afternoon tea with flat sandals and the little earrings my daughter Kate gave me a few birthdays ago. No belt, no jacket, no big necklace.

It skims, so it neither clings nor hangs

The very loose long dresses I remembered looked relaxed on the hanger and hung from my shoulders with no shape at all once I put them on, and the fitted ones pulled across the middle the moment I sat down. The Linnea has what the listing calls a relaxed, gathered fit that skims the body without ever feeling tight, and from there it falls into a flowing A-line. That is a fair description. Nothing pulls at the waist, and it moves when you walk instead of standing out like a tent. I had braced myself for one problem or the other, and neither came.

The lace between my fingers, and the soft gathered fabric beside it.

Lightweight enough for a Queensland afternoon

I had been remembering heavily lined long dresses that felt like wearing two at once, and in Queensland that is the end of any long dress by eleven o’clock. The Linnea is lightweight and breathable, and the fabric is flowing rather than stiff. The afternoon tea was warm and most of it was spent out on the lawn, and I was comfortable the whole way through, which is more than I can say for the two dresses I had tried on and hated beforehand. The week after, I wore it again for an ordinary lunch on the Esplanade, with the sun on the water and not a breath of wind.

On the Esplanade the week after, wearing it for an ordinary lunch. Peter took this one.

A gentle apricot, not a loud colour or a busy print

The apricot is a very soft shade. Not a bright peach or an orange that takes over the whole outfit, more of a gentle apricot-cream, like old lace or the pale roses my mother used to grow by the back fence. It goes with the cream cardigans, tan sandals and woven bags I already own, and it is kind to an older face in a way the dark colours I used to buy never were. The morning of the afternoon tea I left it folded on the dining table while I sorted out my handbag, and I remember thinking how much I liked the colour there in the morning light.

Folded on the dining table that morning, next to my coffee and a few roses from the garden. The V-neck, the sleeve and that lace.

Check the length, and wear it with flat sandals

I am not tall, and length was the thing I worried about most. A maxi dress should suit your height and the shoes you plan to wear with it, and that matters more than the size label. My one piece of advice is to check the measurements before you order, particularly the length, and then picture it with the shoes you actually wear. I wear mine with flat tan sandals, the same ones I wear to the shops, and that is all it needs. No heels, no fuss, no hitching it up on the steps.

Long does not have to mean formal, and people notice

I had spent years filing maxi dresses under weddings and holidays, and neither has much to do with my ordinary life. The listing says it goes anywhere with you, a beach holiday, a long lunch or any warm day, and a simple flowing dress in a soft colour with a little delicate detail looks perfectly natural at a garden lunch. Our friend Margaret noticed it before I had sat down, and later asked where I had found it. The Linnea comes in every size from S right up to 3XL, and in eight colours, from black and dark blue to yellow and red, although I went straight for the apricot. Jan has already told me she expects to see it again before Christmas.