Real stories · Easy summer dressing

The easy summer shirt I now wear with absolutely everything

I'm 67, and summer dressing had quietly become a chore. The tops that are cool enough for the heat hang off me like a sack, and the smart ones are either stuffy or cling in all the wrong places. All I really wanted was one easy thing to throw on that still looked pulled-together.

It sounds a small thing, but standing in front of the wardrobe every warm morning with nothing that felt right had started to wear on me. Relaxed but neat, cool but smart — it seemed too much to ask.

Then I found the Jessica shirt from a British label called York Boutique — an easy short-sleeve camp shirt, in the summer sale. I chose the white, half expecting another shapeless top.

It's nothing of the sort. The fabric is soft and lightweight, so it's genuinely cool in the heat, and the notched collar and relaxed cut skim rather than cling. The short sleeves cover the top of the arm — a small mercy at my age — and it looks tidy tucked in or left loose.

Cool, comfy and smart all at once. I've practically lived in it.

A nicely-made shirt like this, I assumed, would be sixty pounds. But York Boutique sells direct, so it was £29.95 in the summer sale. I very nearly ordered a second colour.

A friend complimented me on it at coffee morning, and I've worn it with trousers, with jeans, and under a cardigan of an evening. It comes in seven colours and in sizes right up to a 3XL.

If summer dressing has become a chore for you too, do have a look while the sale's on. The Jessica is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 300 women, it's £29.95 in the summer sale instead of £60 — half price — and the middle sizes always seem to go first.