I Packed One Dress. I Wore It Four Days.

A note from a reader about the printed dress from a small New Zealand boutique that did a week away on its own, and why it is still the one she reaches for at home.

I packed one dress for a week away with Graeme, as a backup, and I wore it four of the seven days.

You will know the holiday problem if you are a woman my age. You pack for every possible evening, and then you spend the week in the same two things because the rest either cling in the heat, crease in the case, or need a cardigan over the shoulders the moment the sun drops. I am 64 and I have been packing badly for about ten years.

The dress that fixed it is called the Skyler, from a small New Zealand boutique called The Mount Coastal Boutique. It arrived the week before we left, and it is the reason I came home with a suitcase of things I never wore.

The parcel, the week before we went. Eleanor still writes the note herself.

What it is

It is a soft leopard print washed in patches of colour, so from across the room it reads as one shade, blue in my case, and up close it gets a comment. A V neck that sits open at the collarbone and never gapes when you lean forward. Sleeves that finish at the elbow, so the top of the arm is covered without a band or a cardigan. A relaxed A line that falls from the chest to below the knee and skims past the middle instead of following it. Light enough for real heat, and two side pockets, which I will come back to.

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

It came out of the case ready to wear.

That is the whole thing. Four days folded under the shoes, and I shook it out, put it on, and walked down to dinner. No iron in the room, no steam from the shower, no standing in front of the mirror deciding whether the creases showed. The print hides them and the fabric lets the rest fall out on the walk.

The ocean blue on the boardwalk, the first evening. Phone in one pocket, room key in the other, handbag back in the room.

One dress, four days, no iron. At my age that is not a small thing, that is a holiday.

One dress, one week

Day one it did the boardwalk after dinner. Day two it did a long lunch by the water and the walk back along the jetty at sunset, which is the photo Graeme took that made my sister Christine ask about it on the Sunday call. Day four it did dinner out again with flat sandals, and day six it did the drive home, because it was the thing I could sit in for four hours without a single adjustment.

And the pockets. My phone and the room key went in with me every evening and the handbag stayed in the room. At my age that is a small daily luxury, and I did not realise how much I wanted it until I had it.

At the lunch two women at the next table asked where it was from before our mains came. Christine ordered the blush pink before we were home. Maureen from my walking group has the red.

The sandy beige from behind. The A line falls from the chest and floats past the middle, which is the whole point of it.

→ Read about the Skyler

What changed in three weeks

I had bought it as a backup. What surprised me about the Skyler is that it came home and kept working. It has done the Saturday market twice, the school pick up for my granddaughter Olive, and a lunch in town, and it is the dress I reach for first now when it is warm.

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

1. The V neck sits right. Open at the collarbone, and it never gapes when I lean forward for the menu or the water. It sounds small until you have spent a lunch holding a neckline closed. I have not touched this one.

2. The sleeves do the work. To the elbow, so the top of the arm is covered, and loose enough that the air moves through. I went to dinner three nights without a cardigan over my shoulders for the first time in years.

3. It floats past the middle. The A line falls from the chest and never holds on, sitting or standing or getting out of the car. And it goes in the machine when I get home and is dry on the line by morning.

The jetty at sunset, day two. This is the photo that sold Christine.

Now, about the price

I want to talk about the price, because it was the thing that almost stopped me. The Skyler for $83.95 is, frankly, suspicious. I sat at the kitchen table and wrote down what I had paid, or seen, for a printed dress with sleeves and pockets in the last couple of years.

• Trelise Cooper printed dress, $219
• Ricochet, $159
• The Mount Coastal Boutique Skyler, $83.95

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

The other two numbers are not a criticism of those shops. It is that a small boutique that has been on the coast for twenty two years is clearing its collection online as it moves out of the shop, and that is why the price sits where it sits.

What I'd tell you if we were friends

If we were on my back deck 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 been packing badly for years because nothing did more than one job, and that the Skyler does all of them. A V neck that sits right. Sleeves to the elbow that stay cool. An A line that floats past the middle. Pockets. And it comes out of the case ready.

I would tell you the ocean blue is the one I reach for most, the blush pink is Christine's, the scarlet red is Maureen's for the evenings, and the sandy beige is the quiet one that goes with everything. There is a lavender purple for the bold among you. I would tell you to buy two. If you buy two the stack discount comes off, and you will pack both, which is how Christine did it.

I would tell you that the middle sizes are already showing as low. When I checked again this morning the large in the ocean blue was marked almost sold out. The anniversary sale ends when the sizes do.

If you have, for longer than you would like to admit, been coming home from holidays with a suitcase of things you never wore, please do not wait.

While the sizes are still in stock.

— Wendy