Real stories · The dress that moves

My wardrobe went still years ago — this pleated dress brought the movement back

A dress that moves like it costs three times more — that's what this is, and I'd forgotten how much I missed clothes that MOVE. Somewhere along the way my wardrobe went entirely sensible and entirely still: good fabrics, safe shapes, nothing that swished. Then at a dinner last winter I watched a woman my age cross the room in a pleated skirt that moved like water, and I thought: that. I want that again.

It took me a year to find it at a price that didn't require a sit-down.

Then I found the Florelle from a British label called York Boutique — a midi dress with a finely pleated flowing skirt, soft sheer sleeves to the elbow, and a subtle sparkling trim at the waist. There's a deep green as well as the navy-black.

The pleats are the engineering. Dozens of fine folds catch the light and move independently with every step — which is why plain walking across a restaurant reads as an entrance, and why the skirt flatters whatever is underneath it without clinging to any of it. With black tights and ankle boots it's a winter dress through and through.

Dozens of fine pleats moving with every step — which is why the woman crossing the room this winter is, for once, me.

It was £34.95 in the sale — half the usual £70 — and I did check I could send it back if it didn't suit: a fortnight, free delivery. It has since done three dinners and a birthday, and one café lunch for no reason other than that I wanted to wear it.

Malcolm, who notices clothing roughly once a decade, watched me cross the kitchen and said 'that's a good dress, that.' Twice in one decade now. The pleats are clearly powerful.

If your wardrobe has also gone still on you, do have a look — the party season is the perfect excuse. The Florelle is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 230 women, comes in navy-black or green, in UK sizes 8/10 all the way to 22/24 — and at half price the middle sizes go first.