A Letter From a Reader: The Vintage Summer Dresses (Elaine)
At 62, my wardrobe was navy, cream and charcoal. I was sure a bold print would look like I was trying too hard.
Six things the Carolina gets right that forty years of navy, cream and charcoal got wrong, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Elaine · Customer · Hervey Bay, Queensland · 5 min read
I am 62, I live in Hervey Bay, and one Saturday this spring I was looking for an old address book when I found a postcard wedged between two cookbooks. It was from a holiday Peter and I took years ago: turquoise water, sun-warmed buildings and a little market stall full of patterned fabrics. Then I went to get dressed, opened my wardrobe and saw almost nothing but navy, cream and charcoal. I still loved colour. I chose it for flowers, cushions and the little paintings around the house. But somewhere along the way I had decided that a woman my age in a bold print looks as though she is trying too hard.
The following Thursday I was in the queue at the fish market down at the Urangan boat harbour, and the woman in front of me was wearing exactly the kind of dress I had talked myself out of: a long, loose dress in a rich vintage print of turquoise, rust, berry red and purple, with big ornamental flowers and a dark band at the hem. She was about my age, she had a straw basket on her arm and a pair of plain sandals on her feet, and she did not look as though she was trying at all. She looked like somebody who was enjoying her morning.
Her name is Pam, she drives over from Childers for the prawns, and she told me it was the Carolina, from the Vintage Summer Dresses collection at Portsea Boutique, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. My sister Wendy had already asked me to the spring markets on the Esplanade that weekend, so I ordered it that evening, fully expecting to send it 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 it gets right.
Printed dresses for a woman my age, if you have looked lately, come in two piles. One pile is the safe one, a little pattern in navy or grey that nobody has ever noticed you in. The other is so loud and bright that it looks like fancy dress on anyone over forty. Invisible, or a costume. I had given up choosing between them, and Pam in the fish market queue was the proof that I did not have to.
On the wardrobe door the morning before the markets. The colours looked even richer in daylight.
The print has the charm of something found, not something trendy
This is the thing I would tell you if I only had a minute. The Carolina print is wonderfully detailed: scrolling shapes, big ornamental flowers, warm rust and jewel-like turquoise sitting beside deeper purple and berry red. The listing calls it a handcrafted-inspired print, and it does feel almost like a vintage textile I might have admired in a little shop on holiday. It has character, rather than looking like another dress chosen to be safe. On a screen it is lovely. When the parcel arrived and I held it up in the window, it was lovelier still.
“In person, the Carolina print looks richer still.”
— Rosemary V. · Launceston, TASBright colours, with a dark hem that keeps them calm
What stopped me worrying about the colour was the border. The lower skirt finishes in a deep dark band, and that gives all the turquoise and rust somewhere to settle, instead of having every shade compete right down to the floor. It is a small design detail, but it is the difference between bright and loud. There is enough happening in the print that I do not need a statement necklace or a bright scarf. The dress brings the colour, and the hem keeps it in order. I could wear it with black sandals or my old tan flats and leave the pattern to do the rest.
The print up close. Soft fabric, and the flowers are even prettier than in the photos.
“Such lovely colours — bright, but not too loud.”
— Carolyn M. · Fremantle, WAA relaxed fit for a long morning at the markets
The listing describes a relaxed fit designed for comfort and freedom on warm days, and an airy, lightweight feel that lets you move with ease. That matters to me when the plan is to stroll around market stalls, stop for a coffee and stay out longer than expected. The Carolina is long and loose, falling straight from the shoulders rather than pulling in anywhere. Wendy and I spent the whole of Saturday morning at the markets on the Esplanade, up and down the rows of stalls in the sun and then on the grass with a coffee, and I never once wished I had worn something else.
At the Saturday markets on the Esplanade in Hervey Bay. Peter took this one.
A simple V-neck, and sleeves that cover the tops of the arms
The neckline is a simple V shape. I appreciate that, because the print is already full of lovely detail and it does not need frills at the neck as well. With an ordinary pair of earrings it looks complete. The sleeves come down well past the elbow, and the size chart lists them at 46.5 cm on the smallest size, longer as the sizes go up, which covers the part of my arms I have been quietly hiding for years without making the dress feel heavy. The morning of the markets I left it folded on the kitchen table while I found my hat, and even folded it was the most colourful thing in the room.
Folded on the kitchen table with my morning coffee. Still the most colourful thing in the room.
“I love that the sleeves keep the tops of my arms covered.”
— Lorraine S. · Port Macquarie, NSWIt arrived looking like far more than it cost
I have bought dresses in the past that arrived looking nothing like their photographs, and I was ready for that again. When the Carolina came I unwrapped it on the bed and looked at it properly, and it was the other way around: the colours were the sort I usually admire on a scarf or a piece of art, and there they were on a dress I could wear with my ordinary sandals. It goes with the tan flats, the straw basket and the small neutral bag I already own, so there was no second shopping trip to finish the outfit.
“It came nicely packed, and the quality was better than I expected for the price.”
— Gillian R. · Mount Gambier, SAPeople stop you, and there are seventeen prints to choose from
I was not expecting strangers to talk to me about a dress. At the markets a woman at the honey stall asked where it was from, and by the time Wendy and I sat down with our coffee another had asked the same thing. Wendy said I had become a walking advertisement. The Carolina comes in sizes S to 3XL, and the size chart lists the length for each size, so check it against your height before you order. It is also only one of seventeen dresses in the Vintage Summer Dresses collection, from the Judith and the Clara to the Sofia and the Mia, and every one of them is the same price. Wendy has her eye on the Judith.
“Someone I'd never met stopped me at the markets to ask about it.”
— Frances W. · Eumundi, QLDThe Carolina, against the safe dresses I had been buying
You can buy a summer dress almost anywhere. I know, because I have owned most of them, and given the rest to the op shop. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Navy, cream and charcoal every week
A little print nobody can make out
Needs a scarf or a necklace to add interest
Short sleeves, or a cardigan over the top
Nobody has ever asked where you got it
Turquoise, rust, berry red and purple
A rich vintage print with a dark hem to calm it
Complete with plain earrings and sandals
Sleeves that cover the tops of the arms
Asked about twice at the Saturday markets
About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The Carolina is A$69.99, and it was A$229.00. Every dress in the Vintage Summer Dresses collection is the same price.
The boutique says this is their spring sale price, that they sell directly, with no middleman taking a cut, and that is how they can keep it there. That is their arithmetic, not mine. What I can tell you is that I have paid more than that for a navy dress nobody remembers, and this one I have been stopped in twice.
If you have spent forty years in navy, cream and charcoal because somebody once told you a bold print was not for women our age, this is the dress I would hand you instead.
— Elaine
The Vintage Summer Dresses — pictured: the Carolina
- The Carolina: turquoise, rust and purple vintage print
- Dark contrasting band at the hem
- V-neck and sleeves past the elbow
- Relaxed fit, light and airy
- Seventeen vintage prints, all A$69.99
- Sizes S to 3XL, free delivery across Australia
Spring sale on now. The middle sizes are already going.