A Letter From a Reader: The Spring Dresses (Elaine)
At every wedding for ten years I stood at the back of the photo. This spring I stood in the front row.
Six things a handful of spring dresses get right that ten years of black and shapeless got wrong, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Elaine · Customer · Hervey Bay, Queensland · 5 min read
There is a photograph from my niece's wedding in 2019 where you can see exactly two things of me: the top of my head and one elbow. I put myself there on purpose. Somewhere after fifty my middle stopped being the shape it used to be, and from then on every wedding, christening and sixtieth went the same way. A black dress that hid everything, a jacket over it, and the back row.
In October, Peter and I went to the wedding of our friends' daughter at a little white timber church out past Maryborough. At the reception I sat next to a woman called Glenys, about my age and my build, in a dusty blue dress with a lace top and a floaty skirt that moved when she walked. She looked lovely. She looked like she was enjoying herself. When the photographer called for the family, she went straight to the front.
So I asked her, plainly, over the pavlova. She laughed and said it was from Portsea Boutique, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now, and that she owned three of their spring dresses because they were the first ones in years that did not cling across the tummy.
I ordered two that week, fully expecting to send them back. I did not, and I wrote to the boutique to tell them why, and they asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read. So here it is, the six things these dresses get right.
The Rhonda, the same one Glenys wore, at the next wedding. Front row. Peter took this one.
They are cut to fall past the tummy, not cling to it
This is the thing I would tell you if I only had a minute. Most of these dresses are shaped at the top and then fall loose from just under the bust, with soft pleats or a floaty skirt, so the fabric skims past the middle instead of clinging to it. The Gigi has soft pleats from the bust right down. The Matilda has a wrap neckline and a gathered waist that sits higher than you would expect. You get a shape, without the part you mind being on display.
The Gigi up close. Soft fabric, little poppies and cornflowers.
Sleeves that cover the tops of your arms
Every one I looked at has a sleeve. Lace to the elbow on the Rhonda, a soft flutter sleeve on the Matilda, a short sleeve on the Gigi. No cardigan needed over the top for the photos, which after ten years of cardigans in thirty-degree heat I can tell you is a relief.
Colour, but the grown-up kind
Not the loud florals you see on the girls in the catalogue. Dusty blue lace, a watercolour of taupe and blush, white with little wildflowers. Soft enough that you look like you made an effort, not like you are trying to be twenty-five.
My second one, the Matilda, on the wardrobe door for the next lunch.
Midi length, the right side of the knee
They fall below the knee, most of them to the middle of the calf. Long enough that you never think about sitting down, the wind, or getting out of the car, short enough to look like spring and not like a nightie.
Fabrics that are cool, and come out of the parcel ready
Breathable fabric on the Gigi, light chiffon on the Rhonda's skirt, soft floaty fabric on the Matilda. They came out of the parcel with hardly a crease, and the Gigi goes in the wash with everything else.
The Rhonda, the morning it arrived.
Fifty-odd styles, and the sale is real
The spring collection runs to more than fifty dresses, most of them in several colours, from S right up to 3XL. I spent an evening on the sofa choosing while Peter watched the football. I bought the Rhonda, then the Matilda, and Lyn, Peter's sister, is getting the Gigi for Christmas. I have not told her yet.
Lyn's present, folded on my kitchen table where she will not see it.
See The Spring Dress Collection →These, against the dresses I had been buying
Black, every wedding, every lunch
Tight across the tummy, or a shapeless tent
Sleeveless, so a jacket on top in the heat
Too short, or long enough to trip on
The back row of every photo
Soft blues, watercolours and wildflowers
Shaped at the top, falling loose past the tummy
A sleeve on every one
Midi length, below the knee
The front row, finally
About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The Rhonda is A$79.95, and it was A$319.95. Most of the collection is between A$63.95 and A$85.95, all marked down about the same.
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. What I can tell you is that I have paid more than that for a black dress I hid in at five weddings, and I bought two of these.
If you have spent the last ten years at the back of every photo, this is where I would start instead.
— Elaine
The Spring Dress Collection
- Rhonda: lace bodice and sleeves, floaty chiffon skirt
- Gigi: soft wildflowers on white, pleats that fall past the tummy
- Matilda: watercolour wrap neckline, flutter sleeves
- 50+ spring styles, sleeves on every one, midi length
- Sizes S to 3XL, free delivery across Australia
Spring sale on now. The middle sizes are already going.