The dress I've worn eleven times in three weeks.

I did not plan to. I just kept reaching for it — and my daughter did not believe me until I sent her the list.

I am 63 years old, and three weeks ago I bought a dress online that has, by my own count, been on my body eleven different times. My daughter Sarah did not believe me when I told her on the phone. So I gave her the list.

Once to the farmers market on a Saturday morning. Once to a doctor's appointment I had been dreading. Once in the garden on a hot Wednesday, on my knees around the tomatoes. Once to a long lunch with my sister, who is 67 and does not lie about clothes. Once to my granddaughter Emily's swim lesson, in the soft folding chair beside the pool. And the rest around the house, on ordinary days, because I reached for it again without thinking.

The dress is called the Matilda. It comes from the Clarke family — a small boutique here in South Carolina that has been family-run since 1986, three generations, mother to daughter. It is a soft, lightweight A-line that skims instead of clinging and stays cool when the Carolina heat sets in.

And it has pockets. Deep ones. The kind that mean I can walk our dog to the corner without a bag, hold Emily's library book and her hand at the same time, or carry a glass of iced tea from the kitchen to the porch without anything sliding off my shoulder.

A pocket, at 63, is a love language.

After the fourth wearing, Sarah called from Boston and asked, gently, if I was alright. I told her I was completely fine. I told her I was wearing the same dress because I had not bothered to take it off.

She ordered her own the next morning. In the blush.

I do not usually write things like this. But three different women have asked me about this dress in three weeks, and at some point it stopped feeling fair to keep it to myself.

Why they're clearing it now

I read the Clarke family's letter before I bought it. They wrote that for America's 250th, they wanted to give something back to the women who have kept their doors open since 1986 — so they priced the Matilda at less than a quarter of what it launched at.

It arrived a few days later in a kraft-paper parcel with a short handwritten note from the family. I have been reaching for it ever since.

If your closet is full of things you never reach for, maybe you need the one you cannot stop reaching for. I hope you find your size before it clears.

— Margaret Ellison · Mount Pleasant, SC

See the Matilda — $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.