Forty years of holiday dresses and I never wrote a word about one. This is the exception
Forty years of holiday dresses and I never wrote a word about one. This is the exception
Six things the Isabella gets right that holiday dresses get wrong, from a woman who does not review clothes.
Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Pat, I am 68, I live in Leeds, and I have never in my life sat down to write about a frock. What I have done is pack for forty years of holidays, and unpack a wardrobe of regrets at the other end. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about a dress, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Isabella, from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw it on a woman at our hotel in Scarborough, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
Strapless. At 68. I can hear you from here, and I said the same, out loud, to Sylvia. Read on.
Here is what forty years of holidays taught me. Evening dresses for a week away come in two piles. The shapeless floaty pile, which is see-through by the pool and a nightie by dinner. And the fussy pile, fitted, zipped, boned, and you sweat through the starter and count the minutes to your room. I have packed from both piles for years and never once looked like the woman on the cruise.
Shapeless and see-through, or fussy and sweating. Those were the holiday options, and I had done my years in both.
The Isabella is the first holiday dress I have owned that is neither, and having worn it four evenings out of seven, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. Every colour going, and I nearly sent it back on principle. Then I tried it on.
The top is gathered, so it holds
Strapless is the objection, so I will deal with it first. The bodice is gathered all the way round, so it holds itself where you put it. No straps to fall down, no hitching at the dinner table, no fiddling. I forgot about it by the soup, which is the whole test.
The gathered top. It stays put. That is the entire argument.
I was worried about strapless at my age. It does not move. Wore it with a wrap and had a lovely evening without a single tug.
Christine B., HarrogateThe colours go with everything you already own
Every colour is in it somewhere. Mustard, teal, wine, sage, rose. So the cream wrap goes, the navy wrap goes, the tan sandals go and the black ones go. You do not buy anything else to make it work. I am careful with money and I will not pretend otherwise, and that mattered.
Every wrap I own goes with it. I packed one dress and three wraps and had three outfits.
Margaret E., WetherbyIt falls from the waist and skims everything
Below the band the skirt falls in soft panels, straight down and out, so it skims the middle, the hips and everything else you would rather it did not report on. There is a shape, but nothing squeezes to make it. You can eat the dinner.
The panels. Colour and movement, and nothing that clings.
It skims straight over my middle. Shaped at the top, forgiving below, which is exactly the order I want.
Dorothy S., IlkleyIt is floor length, so nothing below the knee needs thinking about
Legs, ankles, the veins, the tan you did not get. All covered, all evening. It moves when you walk and it swishes on a dance floor, and it never once needed holding down or hitching up.
Floor length is why I bought it. Legs covered, dress moving, me not worrying. Best evening dress in years.
Pauline H., OtleyIt rolls into a corner of the case
Light as anything, and it comes out of the suitcase looking exactly as it went in. No hanging in a steamy bathroom, no travel iron, no fuss. It weighs less than the wrap.
Rolled it up in the case for a fortnight away. Shook it out, wore it, no iron. Packing sorted.
Eileen T., KnaresboroughWith a wrap it does a wedding, without one it does a Tuesday
Cream wrap over the shoulders and it is a wedding-guest dress. Wrap off by the pool and it is a holiday dress. Same dress, two jobs, and the sizing is honest from an 8/10 to an 18/20. I own one. The woman from Scarborough owns two, and I understand why.
On the wardrobe door, wrap on the hook next to it. Ready for the next do.
Wore it to a wedding with a shawl and to the hotel bar without. Two dresses for the price of one, and a cheap one at that.
Maureen C., SkiptonThe Isabella, against the holiday dresses you have been buying
You can find a long holiday dress for sixty-odd pounds almost anywhere. I know, because I have a wardrobe of them, each worn one week. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Shapeless and see-through, or fussy and boned
Straps that slip and need hitching
One colour, needs the right wrap and shoes
Creased flat by the time you unpack
Holiday only, then wardrobe exile
Gathered top that holds, soft skirt that skims
No straps at all, nothing to fiddle with
Every colour, goes with every wrap you own
Rolls into the case, no iron
Wedding with a wrap, holiday without
About the price
The Isabella is £32.95 at the moment. It was £66.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that they are clearing the summer stock as the season turns, and once it has gone it is gone until next year. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with something, and I have found nothing wrong with this.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
Folded for the case. It takes up less room than my washbag.
If you have a holiday, a wedding or a do of any kind coming, and you have done your years in the two piles, this is the dress I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and look.
Pat
ISABELLA | Strapless Pleated Maxi Dress
- Gathered strapless top that holds, no straps to slip
- Soft pleated panels that skim from the waist down
- Every colour in it, goes with any wrap or sandal
- Floor length, nothing below the knee to think about
- Light, rolls into the case, no ironing
- UK sizes 8/10 to 18/20
- FREE UK delivery & 100% happiness guarantee
Summer stock clearing now. The middle sizes go first.