The One Easy Dress I Reach For All Summer

A light, striped button dress you simply pull on — cool, comfortable noon to night, with real pockets and a flattering line.

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 nicer 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 button 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 Lydia, 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 — pull on and you're done

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 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 short sleeves and relaxed cut 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.

3Skims everything, never clings

It's cut relaxed and easy, so the soft fabric 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 cut so it still looks like a choice.

4Real pockets, even in a dress this pretty

There are real pockets set into the skirt — deep enough for your phone, your keys, a tissue, your hands. You can carry the essentials in the dress itself and leave the bag at home, and your hands finally have somewhere to be when you stop to talk.

5Nine colours for your whole summer

It comes in nine easy colours — the blue-and-white stripe, plus white, black, pink, green, purple, yellow and more — each one light, easy and just as flattering as the last. There's no "what goes with this" — you simply reach for the shade you feel like. Most women start with one and come back for two more.

6A flattering vertical stripe, in a size for you, from S to 5XL

The soft vertical stripe draws the eye down and lengthens the whole line, so it flatters as well as it comforts — and it runs from S all the way 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 Lydia, against the summer dresses you've been buying

	Typical summer dress	The Lydia
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
The fit	Clings to the middle, or a shapeless sack	A relaxed cut that skims — comfy noon to night
Pockets	None — a bag in your hand all day	Real, deep side pockets for phone, keys, hands
Colours	One shade that goes with nothing	Nine easy colours, each as flattering as the last

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Lydia 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 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 Lydia has been the thing I've reached for on every warm day since it arrived — cool, easy, comfortable from noon to night, and pretty enough that I feel like myself in it. 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 Lydia — $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.