Comfortable Enough To Live In, Elegant Enough For Anywhere

An airy, relaxed shirt-and-trousers set with a whisper of sequin — it feels like your softest clothes and looks like you dressed for something.

Every time I left the house, I faced the same tired choice. The elegant clothes were stiff and fussy — I'd spend the whole time counting down to getting home and out of them — and the comfortable clothes looked like I'd given up. Nothing was ever genuinely both.

So more often than not the comfortable pile won, and I'd turn down the lunch, or go along and spend the afternoon feeling underdressed. I'd about decided that comfortable and elegant were two different wardrobes, and I could only live in one.

It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who told me to stop settling and try a set from a small family boutique here in South Carolina. Before I tell you what it did for how I feel getting dressed, 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 set is called the Marina, 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.

1A little sparkle — and yes, you're allowed it

The sequins are a whisper, not a shout — a line of shine down the front and across the pockets that catches the light just enough. It is glamour you are absolutely allowed, the tasteful kind that lifts an outfit instead of shouting over it. Nobody outgrows a little sparkle.

2Cool and airy when the heat comes up

The weave is light and airy and the cut is loose, so the air moves through it instead of trapping the heat against you. On a warm day it stays cool and away from the skin — dressed up, but never stifling.

3Skims everything, clings to nothing

The shirt falls loose over the middle and the trousers hang wide and easy, so nothing clings where you would rather it skimmed — and because there is room in it, it fits just as easily at the end of the day as the start. Relaxed, but cut so it still looks like a choice.

4One set, a dozen ways

Together it is one elegant outfit. But the shirt goes open over a tank or with the jeans you already own, and the trousers go with almost any top in your wardrobe. One set that quietly turns into a whole summer of outfits.

5The easy elegance you thought had passed you by

There is a kind of woman who looks effortlessly elegant — relaxed, expensive-looking, completely at ease — and somewhere along the way you may have decided she was not you anymore. She still is. This is the set that gives you that ease back, the elegance that looks like you were born to it and feels like nothing at all to wear.

6A whole outfit, in your size, from S to 2XL

It arrives as a whole outfit — nothing to match, nothing to assemble — and it comes from S to 2XL, cut relaxed so it fits and flatters a range of bodies. A set made to fit the woman, not to make the woman fit the set.

The Marina, against the elegant sets you've been buying

	Typical elegant set	The Marina
Comfort	Elegant but stiff — counting down to take it off	As easy as loungewear, dressed enough for anywhere
A little glamour	Sparkle you've told yourself you outgrew	A tasteful whisper of sequin — glamour you're allowed
In the heat	Fabric that clings and traps the heat	Airy, loose weave — cool and away from the skin
The fit	Clings to the middle, or a shapeless sack	Skims and drapes — comfy from noon to night
How often you wear it	Only works as the set, then the closet	A set, or split a dozen ways all summer

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Marina at $235.00 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 set is going out for less than a third of that.

Mine arrived folded in tissue with a little handwritten note on top. It pulls straight on — nothing to fasten — and I had it on and felt a little glamorous before I'd finished my coffee.

I don't usually write things like this. But the Marina is the first thing in years I've put on and felt both entirely comfortable and genuinely elegant — the easy, put-together look I'd quietly decided wasn't mine anymore. If you've been choosing between comfortable and elegant every time you get dressed, this is the one I'd tell you to try, while the sale is still on.

— Margaret Ellison · Mount Pleasant, SC

See the Marina — $69.99 →

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.