A letter from a reader

At 67, the hot days used to leave me with nothing I wanted to wear

I have never written one of these before, and I nearly did not. But I have said this to enough friends now that it seemed easier to write it down.

It is the hot days I used to dread. Everything I owned either clung where I did not want it to, or left me feeling too bare, or was so dark it soaked up the sun and left me wilting by lunchtime. I would stand at the wardrobe on a beautiful morning feeling quietly defeated.

Cool, covered, or feeling like myself. It always seemed I could have two of the three, never all of them.

So on the warm days I would give up and go out in something I did not much like, and spend the day tugging at it.

Then my sister turned up in one

A long, flowing floral dress that moved when she moved. She looked cool and put together on a day I was melting, and I could not stop looking at it.

It is from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. They do a whole collection of floral summer dresses. Mine is a rich purple one covered in a paisley and mandala print, with little touches of pink and teal, that looks like it cost a great deal more than it did. I ordered it that evening.

What happened at the summer lunch

I wore it to a garden lunch on the first really hot day.

Four women asked me where it was from before the puddings arrived. One of them was Ann, who I have known since our children were at primary school and who has never once commented on anything I have worn. She said I looked like I had made an effort for once, which I have decided to take as a compliment.

But the thing that stayed with me was that I did not think about it once in the heat. It is light as anything and it floats rather than clings, so you stay cool and covered at the same time. I have lived in it since, in the garden, to the shops, out for dinner.

Three things I have learned since

One. It floats, it does not cling. The long loose shape keeps the fabric off you, so you stay cool, and it skims over everything instead of clinging to it. In the heat that is the whole game.

Two. Cool and covered are not opposites. The 3/4 sleeves and the long skirt keep the sun off the bits I would rather not have on show, and somehow it is still the coolest thing I own.

Three. The prints do the work. They are so pretty that the dress looks considered and expensive, even though you have done nothing but put it on. They come in dozens of them, so there is one for everyone.

About the price

I will be honest, the price made me suspicious more than anything.

They are £36.95. They were £70.00.

My first thought was that there had to be a catch, because a floaty summer dress with a print this lovely usually costs a good deal more.

There is no catch that I have found. It is a small boutique selling directly, and they run a summer sale to move the season's stock. I read the reviews before I ordered a second one. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if anything made me trust it more. The same things kept coming up. One woman had written, “So cool and floaty in the heat and the print is beautiful. I have had compliments every time I wear it.” That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were having a cup of tea and you asked me, this is what I would say.

If the hot days leave you standing at the wardrobe with nothing that is cool to put on and still feels like you, it is worth ten minutes of an evening to have a look.

Not because a dress changes anything. It does not. But being comfortable in the heat and still liking what you see in the mirror, at the same time, is a small thing I had stopped expecting, and I would rather you did not stop expecting it either.

The sale is on now, they come in dozens of prints from a UK 8 to a 24, and the nicest ones go first.

I do not dread the hot days any more. I rather look forward to them now.

Maggie