The Chambray Dress That Always Looks Right

A soft chambray button-front dress — timeless and easy, cool and comfortable, worn a dozen ways. Pull it on and you're dressed.

Most mornings, deciding what to wear had become a chore. I'd stand at the closet building a pile on the bed, trying to make an outfit work, and half the time I'd give up and default to the same tired thing and feel plain in it all day.

What I really wanted was one dress I could pull on and simply know I looked right — for the shops, for lunch, for a visit — without the deciding. But the comfortable ones looked like I'd given up, and the pretty ones were fussy or too warm. Nothing was both.

It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who told me to stop settling and try one from a small family boutique here in South Carolina — a soft chambray dress she said she reached for without thinking. Before I tell you what it did for my mornings, 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 Elizabeth, 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 timeless chambray dress that always looks right

We made it in soft chambray with a full button front, because it's the kind of timeless, easy piece that always looks considered, whatever you're doing. You pull it on and you are dressed and pulled-together — for the shops, for lunch, for a visit. One dress, and the deciding is done.

2Cool and light through the hottest days

The chambray is soft and light, and the loose, tiered cut lets 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.

3Skims 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 pulled-together with it.

4Wear it buttoned as a dress, or open as a layer

Because it buttons all the way down, it does double duty. Buttoned up, it's an easy chambray dress; left open, it's a long, relaxed layer to throw over a top and trousers — and chambray goes with almost everything you already own. One piece that quietly turns into several.

5A long button-front line that quietly flatters

The row of buttons runs in a long line straight down the front, and the dress falls to a graceful midi — and that vertical line draws the eye down and lengthens the whole silhouette. It flatters without ever clinging, so you look longer and leaner while feeling entirely comfortable.

6Two colours, and a size for you, from S to 3XL

It comes in two easy chambray shades — a soft sky blue and a deeper blue — and it runs from S to 3XL, 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 Elizabeth, against the dresses you've been buying

	Typical dress	The Elizabeth
Getting dressed	A pile on the bed, then the same default	One dress you pull on — always looks right
In the heat	Heavy, or clings the moment it's warm	Soft, light chambray — the heat moves through
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	Buttoned as a dress, or open as a layer
Your shape	Hides you, or clings where you don't want	A long button line that lengthens and flatters

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Elizabeth at $174.95 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 that same morning, buttoned it up, and it's become the first thing I reach for.

I don't usually write things like this. But the Elizabeth has become the first thing I reach for — comfortable enough for a long day, timeless enough for anywhere, and the deciding is done the moment I pull it on. If getting dressed has become a chore the way it had for me, this is the one I'd tell you to try, while the sale is still on.

— Margaret Ellison · Mount Pleasant, SC

See the Elizabeth — $59.95 →

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.