The Dress I Wore To Two Weddings And A Tuesday

A note from a reader about the small Queensland boutique dress that finally gave her a shape without holding on to her, and went from a garden wedding to the markets without changing.

For about ten years I have owned two kinds of dress. The one for occasions, which I cannot wait to take off, and the one for every day, which I would never wear to an occasion.

You know the two. The occasion one pulls at the waist by the speeches and needs a slip and a cardigan. The everyday one is comfortable and looks it. I told myself that was just how dresses worked for a woman my shape. The truth is I had stopped believing there was a dress that did both.

Three weeks ago a friend of mine wore a dress from a small Queensland boutique called Port Douglas Boutique to a garden wedding, and then, two days later, to the markets. It is called the Sapphire. I want to tell you about it, because if you are a woman my age you may have the same two piles in your wardrobe.

What it is

It is a midi dress in a soft blue mosaic print, blues and greens with a little gold, the kind of print that reads as one calm colour from across the room and gets a comment up close. The V neck crosses over at the front and sits where it should. The short sleeves flutter a little and cover the top of the arm. The waist is gathered softly, and the skirt falls loose and light to below the knee.

But I want to be honest about the part that actually mattered to me.

The waist gives me a shape without holding on to me.

That is the whole thing. Every other dress I owned either had no waist at all, so I looked like I had given up, or had a waist that dug in the moment I sat down for the entree. The Sapphire gathers softly, sits in the right place, and lets go. I put it on in the bedroom, sat down on the edge of the bed the way I always test a dress, and nothing pulled.

The garden wedding in June. Speeches, dancing, and I forgot I was wearing it.

It gives me a waist and then it leaves me alone. I did not know a dress could do both.

The two weddings

I wore it to my niece's garden wedding first. My daughter Kate was down from Melbourne, and halfway through the speeches she leaned over and said, you have not tugged at that once. I looked down. She was right.

Three weeks later I wore it to a friend's second wedding, a small one by the water, with sandals instead of heels, and two women asked where it was from before the cake.

And on the Tuesday in between I wore it to the markets with a straw bag and flat sandals, and it was just a nice dress for a Tuesday. Nobody looked at me as if I had overdressed for tomatoes.

"Two weddings and the markets," Kate said. "Mum, that is the whole point of a dress."

→ Read about the Sapphire

What changed in three weeks

I had not been looking to feel pretty. By a certain age you quietly lower that bar to comfortable, and then again to covered. What surprised me about the Sapphire is that it gave me all three without me choosing.

Three things I noticed in the first week, and I wrote them down because I knew I would want to remember.

1. The waist is kind. Gathered softly, sitting where a waist should, and it does not dig in when I sit. I stopped bracing for the entree.

2. The sleeves cover the arms. A soft flutter sleeve that covers the top of the arm without a single degree of warmth. No cardigan at either wedding.

3. The print does the talking. From across the room it is one soft blue. Up close it is the thing people ask about. It goes with the sandals I already own and the good wedges.

It is light enough that I have worn it through real Queensland heat without wilting, and it has the kind of easy skirt that lets me sit through a long lunch, get in and out of the car, and bend down for Digger, our little rescue terrier cross, without the dress fighting me once.

Now, about the price

I want to talk about the price, because it was the thing that almost stopped me. The Sapphire for $94.95 is, frankly, suspicious. I sat at the kitchen table and wrote down what I had paid, or seen, for a printed midi like this in the last couple of years.

• Witchery printed midi, $199
• Blue Illusion, $149
• Port Douglas Boutique Sapphire, $94.95

And underneath, in slightly larger letters, the only thing I could think to write. …how??

What I'd tell you if we were friends

If we were on my back verandah with a cold drink and you asked me whether you should order one, this is what I would say.

I would tell you that women our age have spent years keeping two piles of dresses, and that the Sapphire is the first one I have owned that belongs in both. A real waist that does not hold on. Sleeves that cover the arms. A print that looks like more than it cost. There is a difference, and you feel it the moment you sit down in it.

I would tell you it comes in the one blue print, which is the point, and that I bought a second one because I could not stand the thought of it being in the wash on a wedding day. If you buy two the stack discount comes off.

I would tell you that the middle sizes are already showing as low. When I checked again this morning a couple of them were nearly out. The anniversary sale ends when the sizes do.

If you have, for longer than you would like to admit, been changing out of the nice dress the moment you got home, please do not wait.

While the sizes are still in stock.

— Julie