The One Easy Dress I Reach For All Summer

A light, striped button dress you simply pull on — cool, comfortable, covered where you want to be, and worn a dozen ways.

On a warm morning, getting dressed had become more effort than it was worth. Matching a top to bottoms in something cool enough for the heat but presentable enough to leave the house — by the time I'd worked it out, I was already too warm and half out of patience.

The dresses I owned didn't help. The cool, comfortable ones were shapeless things I felt frumpy in, and the pretty ones were too warm to actually wear once the day heated up. So I defaulted to the same tired thing and didn't feel like myself in it.

It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who told me to try one from a small family boutique here in South Carolina — one easy striped dress, she said, that had become the thing she reached for on every warm day. Before I tell you what it did for my summer, I think you should read the Clarke family's letter first.

The Clarke family runs a small boutique here in South Carolina, family-run since 1986 — three generations, mother to daughter. The dress is called the Clara, and their letter walks through the handful of things they refused to compromise on. I am going to let their words carry it, because they say it better than I could.

1One easy dress you pull on and go

We made it to be the easiest thing in your closet on a warm day — one striped button dress you pull on and do up, with no top to match and no outfit to assemble. It's soft, cool and comfortable the moment it's on, and still looks like you made an effort. You reach for it and you are dressed and out the door.

2Cool and airy through the hottest days

The fabric is light and airy, and the loose cut and tiered skirt let the air move right through instead of trapping the heat against you. On the warmest afternoon it stays cool and away from the skin — a dress you can actually enjoy the summer in, not just get through it.

3Covers the tops of your arms

The sleeve rolls to just below the elbow — it covers the top of the arm, the part most women would rather keep covered, but stops short so it's still cool and easy in the warm months. No bare upper arm to think about, and no cardigan to throw over the top and ruin the ease of a summer dress.

4Skims everything, never clings

Its soft, tiered cut falls loose over the middle and skims the body rather than gripping it — and because there is room in it, it sits just as comfortably at the end of the day as the start, on the days your body decides to change its mind. Relaxed, but pretty with it.

5Wear it as a dress, or a tunic over trousers

Because it buttons all the way down and sits a little shorter, it does double duty. Worn on its own it's an easy striped dress; worn open or over slim trousers or leggings, it's a long, relaxed tunic — covered exactly as much as you like. One piece that quietly turns into several, and works however you feel most comfortable.

6Five colours, and a size for you, from 2XS to 5XL

It comes in five soft striped colours — green, lilac, yellow, blue and pink — each one light, easy and just as flattering as the last, and it runs all the way from 2XS to 5XL, cut relaxed so it fits a real range of bodies. A dress made to fit the woman, not to make the woman fit the dress.

The Clara, against the summer dresses you've been buying

	Typical summer dress	The Clara
Getting dressed	Matching a top and bottoms in the heat	One button dress you pull on — done
In the heat	Heavy, or clings the moment it's warm	Light and airy — the heat moves right through
Your arms	Sleeveless, or a cardigan over the top	A rolled sleeve that covers, and stays cool
The fit	Clings to the middle, or a shapeless sack	A soft tiered cut that skims — comfy noon to night
How you wear it	Only works as the one dress	A dress, or a tunic over trousers — however you like

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Clara at $139.95 when it launched, and it sold at that price all season. But for America's 250th, the Clarke family wanted to give something back to the women who have kept their doors open since 1986 — so every dress is going out for a little over a third of that.

Mine arrived folded in tissue with a little handwritten note on top. I pulled it on the next warm morning, and I've barely worn anything else since.

I don't usually write things like this. But the Clara has been the thing I've reached for on every warm day since it arrived — cool, easy, comfortable from noon to night, and worn a dozen ways. If summer has become something you get through rather than enjoy, this is the one I'd tell you to try, while the sale is still on.

— Margaret Ellison · Mount Pleasant, SC

See the Clara — $49.95 →

This is a personal account from a Clarke Family customer. Margaret was not paid to write it. · The Clarke Family · Family Fashion · South Carolina, since 1986 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.