At 63, I Stopped Tucking Anything In. This Is What I Wear Instead.

No collar to press, nothing to tuck, and it covers exactly what I want covered. I now own it in three colors.

Somewhere in my early sixties I quietly stopped tucking anything in. Nobody announced it. I just noticed one morning that every blouse I owned ended at exactly the widest part of me, and that I had developed a whole set of small habits to cope — the tug at the hem, the cardigan I kept on all day in a warm room, the long walk to the car with my handbag held in front of me.

What I wanted was not complicated. Something long enough to cover the seat of my leggings so I could wear them again. Something cool, because I live in South Carolina and I am not going to spend August in a cardigan. And nothing with a collar, because a collar means an iron, and an iron means the blouse stays on the shelf.

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 linen blouse cut long, with no collar on it at all. 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 blouse is called the Veronique, 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.

1They Refused to Put a Collar on It

"A collar is the single most demanding inch of fabric in a woman's wardrobe. It has to be pressed, it has to sit right, and the moment it does not, the whole blouse looks tired. So the Veronique has no collar at all. The neckline is a soft V with folded edges that fall naturally against the collarbone, opening into a short placket with three small buttons. That is the entire fastening — there are no buttons below the chest, because there is nothing there that needs opening. It means there is no line at your throat to fuss with, nothing to iron, and nothing that reads as fussy at the neck. It is the most flattering neckline we make, and it is also the laziest, which is the point."

2Cotton and Linen, Because Neither One Alone Was Right

"Pure linen breathes beautifully and creases into a crumpled mess by lunchtime. Pure cotton holds its shape and holds the heat with it. So the Veronique is a cotton-linen blend, and it takes the useful half of each: the open, airy weave of linen that lets the heat off your skin, and enough cotton in it that the creasing stays soft and lived-in rather than crushed. It gets better with washing, not worse — the hand softens every time it goes through. And yes, it creases. It is supposed to. A linen blouse that looks ironed is a linen blouse that is lying about what it is made of."

See the Veronique — $54.95 →

3The Length Was the Whole Reason We Made It

"Ask a woman over sixty what she wants from a blouse and she will not say color or fabric. She will say: I want it to cover me. So the Veronique is cut to tunic length, and the hem is curved — shorter at the front, dipping lower at the sides and back so the seat is fully covered. That curve is the difference between a top you wear over trousers and a top you can wear over leggings without thinking about it. It is also why it does not read as a nightshirt: the curve gives it a shape, where a straight hem at that length would just hang."

4Roomy Through the Body, Without Being a Sack

"There is a lazy way to make a blouse comfortable, which is to make it wider. We did not do that. The Veronique is cut full through the body so nothing pulls across the bust or the middle, but the shoulder is placed properly and the neckline is narrow and deep, which draws the eye up and keeps the whole thing from spreading. Wide where you want room, considered where it shows. Every size is graded from the same pattern, so a 5XL is the same blouse as a small — not a bigger, boxier apology for one."

Check availability & colors →

5The Sleeves Roll Back and Stay Rolled

"The sleeve is full length and cut wide, and it is meant to be rolled. Because there is linen in the weave, a turned-back sleeve creases into its fold and holds there — it does not creep back down your forearm the moment you start washing up. Long when the evening cools, rolled below the elbow through the day, and it stays exactly where you put it either way. No cuff, no button, nothing to fasten. One less thing."

6Ten Colors, and a Size for You — S to 5XL

The Veronique comes in ten colors, which is more than we usually make, and it is deliberate — this is the blouse women come back for in a second and third shade. The one you see me wearing is the olive green. The sizing runs S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL and 5XL — eight sizes, all cut from the same pattern. It is generous through the body on purpose, so if you are between sizes, take the smaller one.

The Veronique, against your usual linen blouse

	The usual linen blouse	The Veronique
Length	Stops at the widest part of you	Tunic length, curved hem, covers the seat
Neckline	A collar that needs pressing to sit right	Collarless soft V — nothing to iron
Fabric	Pure linen that crushes, or cotton that holds the heat	Cotton-linen — breathes, and creases softly
Fastening	A full row of buttons to do up and undo	Three buttons at the chest, and that is all
Sizes	Stops at XL, or gets boxier going up	S to 5XL, every size the same cut

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Veronique at $139.95 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 blouse is going out at $54.95, well below half of what it was.

Mine came in a soft mailer with a folded note in it, and I read the note standing at the kitchen counter before I unfolded anything. Then I put the blouse on over the leggings I had given up on, and I have been putting it on ever since.

I did not set out to buy a blouse in three colors. I bought the green, wore it four days running, and then ordered the white and the navy like a woman who had found something and was not going to risk losing it. If you have a drawer of leggings you have stopped wearing, or a cardigan you keep on in a warm room because of what is underneath it, this is the one I would send you to — and I would not wait, because the middle sizes went first last time.

— Sandra Thompson · Mount Pleasant, SC

See the Veronique — $54.95 →

This is a personal account from a Clarke Family customer. Sandra was not paid to write it. · The Clarke Family · Family Fashion · South Carolina, since 1986 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.