A letter from a reader

At 67, I dreaded hot days because nothing I owned was cool and still like me

I have never written anything like this before, and I want to say at the start that I am not a writer and I am not in the habit of telling other women what to wear.

But four different women asked me about this dress on holiday last week, and I have now explained it enough times that it seemed easier to write it down properly.

It started on the first hot morning of the trip, standing in front of the wardrobe I had packed, realising I had brought nothing I actually wanted to put on in the heat.

Everything I own for hot weather is either too young for me or too hot to wear.

Heavy trousers, tops that cling the moment it is warm, and one or two summer things cut for a woman half my age. On a hot day it is a genuinely dispiriting choice.

I did not choose that. Nobody plans to dread the warm weather. But somewhere along the way summer dressing stopped being something the shops did for us.

How it happens

The light, easy summer dresses are all cut short, or cut low, or cut for a shape none of us has had in decades.

And the things made for our age are so often heavy, and lined, and hot, as though comfort and covering up had to mean sweltering.

So on a hot day you end up in the coolest of your everyday clothes, which were never meant for heat, and you spend the afternoon plucking at them.

What I had wrong

Here is the bit I got most wrong. I thought staying cool and covered and looking nice were three things I had to pick two of.

The answer, it turns out, is a light cotton shirt-dress. A collar and buttons make it look considered rather than thrown on. A gently fitted waist gives it a shape. And a long, loose skirt in breathable cotton keeps you covered and lets the air move, which is the exact opposite of hot.

One easy piece, cool, covered and pulled together all at once. That took me until 67 to work out.

The dress is called the Ruby

It is from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now.

The dress is called the Ruby. A long shirt-dress in a soft blue-and-white stripe, with a proper collar, short sleeves and buttons down the front, gently fitted at the waist and then falling loose to the ankle. There are seven other colours, which I will come back to.

It is one piece, so you are dressed the second it is over your head. The cotton is light and breathes, so it stays cool where everything else clings. And it skims the waist and then flows, so it holds a shape without holding on to you.

It is the whole reason the holiday photographs have me smiling rather than tugging at something.

What happened on holiday

I wore it down to the front with flat sandals on the first evening.

Four women asked me where it was from. Four. One was Sheila, who I have holidayed with for years and who has never once commented on anything I have worn.

She said I looked like I was on the cover of something. I have decided to take that as a compliment.

What I noticed more than the compliments was that I did not think about it once all evening. No plucking, no adjusting, no finding the shade. I was just there, in the evening, cool and covered.

The next morning I threw it on over my swimming costume for breakfast, and it was just as right for that.

Three things I have learned since

One. Cotton beats everything in the heat. A light cotton weave lets the air move, where the man-made summer things trap it against you. It is the single difference between cool and clammy.

Two. A collar does a lot of work. The collar and the button placket are what make a comfortable dress read as a considered one. Without them the same shape would look like a nightie.

Three. One piece is a gift on a hot day. No deciding what goes with what. It is over your head and you are done, and on a warm morning that is worth more than I can tell you.

About the price

I want to be straightforward about this, because it was the thing that made me suspicious.

The Ruby is £34.95. It was £70.00.

My first thought was that there had to be a catch, because a proper cotton maxi in town would be a good deal more than that.

There is no catch that I have found. They are a small boutique selling directly, so there is no department store taking a cut in the middle, and they run a summer sale to shift the season's stock.

I did what I imagine you are doing now and went and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some websites, which if I am honest made me trust it rather more. Real people, mixed opinions, mostly very good.

Then I ordered the yellow as well.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were sat in the garden and you asked me, this is what I would say.

If you dread hot days because nothing you own feels cool and easy and still like you, you are not being fussy. The shops genuinely have not made that dress for us for years. This is it.

One light cotton shirt-dress solves the whole problem, and it costs less than the two heavy things you will not wear again.

Two practical things. The sale is on now, and the middle sizes go first. And once the summer stock has sold through, that is it until next year.

I lived in it the whole holiday.

Maggie