The waist is a tie, which means I am the one who decides where it goes.

On the eyelet cotton midi you set yourself — as high as you like, as loose as you like, and differently after lunch.

By Margaret Ellison · Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Posted August 2026 · 6 min read

I am 63, and I have finally worked out why so many dresses fit me for about four hours and then stop.

It is the waistband. Somebody sewed it at one measurement, in one position, and that was the end of the conversation. It sits an inch lower than I would put it, or an inch tighter, and it is perfectly comfortable at eleven in the morning in a fitting room and quietly unbearable by eight in the evening. You cannot argue with a waistband. It has already decided.

It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who told me to stop buying dresses with a fixed waist and look at one from a small family boutique here in South Carolina. Before I tell you what it did, 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 Eden, 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.

1The waist is a tie, so you set it

A sewn waistband is one measurement in one place, chosen by somebody who has never met you. We used a length of the same cloth instead. You put the waist exactly where it suits you, pull it as close or as loose as you want, and you can untie it and do it again after lunch. It is the only part of a dress you should get a say in, and almost nobody gives it to you.

2The pattern is cut into the cloth, not printed on it

This is eyelet. Every flower you can see is a shape punched right through the cotton and finished at the edges, which is why it has depth to it rather than sitting flat on the surface. A print fades, cracks and eventually washes away. A hole cannot. In ten years this dress will have the same pattern it has today, because the pattern is the fabric.

3All those holes are why it is cool to wear

Here is the part nobody thinks about. A cloth with thousands of small openings in it lets the air straight through, so a full cotton dress that looks like it should be warm is the coolest thing you can put on in August. The decoration and the comfort are the same decision. That does not happen often.

4A proper collar, and it opens at the front

A pointed collar and a row of small buttons down the front, which does two things. It keeps the neckline structured rather than soft and shapeless, so the dress reads as put together with no effort from you. And it opens, so nothing has to go over your head and there is no zip behind you for somebody else to finish.

5A full skirt, gathered, to mid-calf

Below the tie the cloth is gathered and released into a full skirt that falls to mid-calf. There is real room in it — nothing across the hip, nothing catching when you sit, and it swings when you walk instead of hanging straight down. It is also the length that works with a flat sandal and a heel both, which saves owning two versions of the same dress.

6One white, and sizes S to XL

The Eden is made in one color only, and it is white — the plain, soft white that eyelet is meant to be, with the texture doing all the work a pattern would. Sizes run S, M, L and XL. Because the waist ties rather than fastens, it forgives a good deal more than the label suggests, but do check the size chart before you order. If you are between sizes, take the larger one and tie it where you want it.

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

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Eden at $169.95 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 at just over a third of what it was.

Mine arrived a few days later in a box on the bed. I held it up to the window first, to see the light come through all those little holes.

I do not usually write things like this. But I had spent years assuming that a dress fitting me for four hours and then not was simply what happened, and it turns out the whole problem was one seam that did not need to be a seam. If you have a closet full of dresses that were comfortable in the store, I hope you find your size before it clears.

— Margaret Ellison · Mount Pleasant, SC

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.