Forty years of blouses that were almost right. This is a letter about the one that is
Forty years of blouses that were almost right. This is a letter about the one that is
Six things the Perpetua gets right that blouses get wrong, from a woman who had given up and gone to t-shirts.
Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read
I am 68, I keep an allotment, and I have never sold a blouse in my life. What I have done is buy them, for forty years, and be let down by nearly every one. So this is not a review. It is a woman who had given up on blouses and gone to t-shirts, saying that has stopped, and saying why, plainly, in case it saves somebody else forty years.
The blouse I am writing about is called the Perpetua, 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 two seats in front of me on the bus into Leeds, 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.
Here is what forty years of blouses taught me. They come in two piles. The pile that looks right on the hanger, with a collar and proper buttons, and then sits at your throat, gapes when you sit down, and needs an iron I am not going to give it. And the pile that is easy, which is to say a t-shirt, which asks nothing and gives nothing and makes a woman of 68 look like she has clocked off. Somewhere around sixty I stopped buying from the first pile and lived in the second.
A blouse that looked right and behaved badly, or a t-shirt that behaved and looked like I had given up. For years I gave up.
The Perpetua is the first blouse I have owned that refuses both piles, and having worn it on the bus, at the allotment gate and to a christening, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. Sage green, crinkled, four wooden buttons. I thought, that will need ironing. It does not.
There is no collar, so nothing sits at your throat
Just a V, edged plain, that sits where a V should sit on a woman my age. No collar to stand up, turn under, or rub. It is the first thing I noticed on the woman on the bus and the first thing I checked when mine arrived.
The V and the top two buttons. No collar. That is the whole point of it.
No collar at my neck for once. The V sits right and I do not spend the day fiddling with it.
Carol R., WakefieldFour buttons, done up, and they stay done up
Four small wooden buttons down the front, evenly spaced, and because the blouse is cut loose there is nothing pulling at them when you sit down. I sat through a two-hour christening lunch and did not check once. That is new.
Nothing gapes. Sat down, stood up, bent over for the grandchildren. The buttons stayed where they were put.
Diane M., HarrogateThe sleeves are rolled to below the elbow
Three-quarter length, turned back once into a plain cuff. Long enough to cover the tops of my arms, which at 68 is policy, and short enough to stay out of the washing-up. No tab, no button, nothing to undo. They stay rolled.
The sleeve, turned back once. Arms covered, hands free. That is all I ask of a sleeve.
The sleeves are exactly the right length. Cover my arms, out of the sink, and they do not unroll.
Patricia L., HuddersfieldIt is loose, straight, and comes to the hip
No waist, no darts, no shaping that decides where my middle should be. It hangs straight to the hip, with a little vent at each side, so it covers what I want covered and moves when I bend. Over jeans, over the navy trousers, over leggings for the allotment. It does not care.
Covers the middle without clinging and moves when I do. Wore it over leggings to the garden and nobody would know.
Linda K., BradfordIt is light and crinkled on purpose
The fabric is soft, light, and textured, so it is meant to look a little crinkled, which means the iron stays in the cupboard and the blouse looks the same getting off the bus as it did getting on. I checked, in the bus window, which is how this letter started.
Out of the wash, on the hanger, worn. No iron. Light enough for July and it looks better crinkled than pressed.
Janet S., YorkSix colours, and a UK 8 to a 24
The sage I own, a grey, a blue, a khaki, a pink and a lavender, the same loose easy shape in every one. And they do it from a UK 8 right up to a 24, which I wish more places would bother with. I went back for the blue. The woman from the bus owns three, and I understand why.
Three of them on the bed. Same blouse, same buttons, three different mornings.
Bought the sage, went back for the blue and the pink. Same fit in all three, and I am a 20.
Maureen T., SheffieldThe Perpetua, against the blouses you have been buying
You can find a blouse for forty-odd pounds on any high street. I know, because I have a wardrobe of them, each worn twice and ironed once. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
A collar that sits at your throat
Buttons that gape the minute you sit down
Sleeves too long or too short, with a tab to fiddle with
Shaped at the waist, for a waist that is not yours
Ironed, worn, crumpled by the bus stop
A plain V, no collar
Four buttons that stay done up
Rolled to below the elbow, and they stay rolled
Loose and straight to the hip, with a vent each side
Light and crinkled on purpose, no iron
About the price
The Perpetua is £21.95 at the moment. It was £44.00.
I am careful with money and I will not pretend otherwise, so I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that they are a small shop selling directly and they run a summer sale to shift the season’s stock before it turns. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that at that price I did not deliberate long over the blue, and that the middle sizes were already thin when I went back.
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, 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 on the kitchen table between outings. It has not been near the ironing board.
If you have given up on blouses and live in t-shirts, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there.
Pat
PERPETUA | Relaxed Button-Up Blouse
- Plain V, no collar at your throat
- Four wooden buttons that stay done up
- Sleeves rolled to below the elbow
- Loose and straight to the hip, vent each side
- Light and crinkled on purpose, no iron
- Six colours, UK 8 to 24
- FREE UK delivery & 100% happiness guarantee
Summer sale on now. The middle sizes go first.