The Summer Dress That Looks Like You're On Holiday

A long, loose striped shirt-dress with an effortless, expensive-looking ease — cool, covered where you want to be, and worn a dozen ways.

By Margaret Ellison · Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Posted July 2026 · 6 min read

On a warm day, there's a kind of woman I've always envied — the one who looks effortlessly elegant, relaxed and somehow expensive, as though she's just wandered in from somewhere lovely. I never seemed to be her. My summer clothes were either frumpy and shapeless or fussy and stifling, and I'd end up feeling neither cool nor put-together.

So my closet had split into the comfortable things I felt dowdy in and the pretty things I couldn't wait to get out of, and I'd about decided that easy, elegant look simply belonged to other women — younger, or thinner, or just not me anymore.

It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who told me to stop settling and try a dress from a small family boutique here in South Carolina. Before I tell you what it did for how I feel on a warm day, 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 Willow, 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 effortless, expensive-looking ease

We made it long, loose and easy on purpose — the kind of striped shirt-dress that looks like you made an effort you didn't have to. It has the relaxed, expensive feel of somewhere you'd love to be, and you simply pull it on and look put-together. Effortless elegance, without a moment of effort.

2Cool and airy through the hottest days

The fabric is light and airy and the cut is loose and open, so the air moves right through it 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, and look lovely doing it.

3Covers the tops of your arms

The sleeve rolls to just below the elbow — it covers the top of the arm, the part most women would rather keep covered, but leaves it cool and easy in the heat. No bare upper arm to think about, and no cardigan to throw over the top and ruin the ease of a summer dress.

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

Because it buttons all the way down, it does two jobs. Done up, it's an elegant striped dress. Left open, it's a light layer to throw over a top and trousers, or over your swimsuit at the water. One piece that quietly turns into a whole summer of outfits.

5Skims everything, never clings

It's cut loose and easy, falling in soft straight lines that skim the middle rather than gripping it — and because there's 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 elegant with it.

6A size for you, from XS all the way to 5XL

It comes in three easy stripes — sand, blue and a soft taupe — and it runs from XS all the way to 5XL, cut relaxed so it fits and flatters a real range of bodies. A dress made to fit the woman, not to make the woman fit the dress.

The Willow, against the summer dresses you've been buying

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Willow at $149.95 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 well under half of that.

Mine arrived folded in tissue with a little handwritten note on top. I pulled it on the next warm morning and felt, for once, like the woman I'd always envied.

I don't usually write things like this. But the Willow is the first thing in years I've put on for a warm day and felt genuinely elegant in — cool, comfortable, covered where I want to be, and effortless in a way I'd stopped believing was for me. 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

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.