Real stories · Cool, loose, and it makes me happy

The floaty summer dress that keeps me cool on the hottest days — and cheers me up every time

Something loose and airy that would keep me properly cool on the hot days — and, if I'm honest, that didn't make me look like I'd given up — that was the summer dress I'd been hunting for. I'm 67, and I don't do heat well any more. On the really warm afternoons every dress I owned seemed to cling somewhere, or trap the heat, or make me feel like a badly wrapped parcel by four o'clock. And the truly cool ones were all so drab — beige, navy, sensible — that I looked as wilted as I felt.

What I wanted was one dress I could throw on for a hot day that let the air move round me, didn't touch me anywhere, and lifted my spirits a bit into the bargain.

Then I found the Melisande dress from a British label called York Boutique — a sleeveless round-neck summer dress in the loveliest watercolour floral print.

It's my hot-weather dress now, full stop. The fabric is a soft, light breathable blend, and the cut is loose and floaty from a gentle gathered seam under the bust, which is why the air moves right through it and nothing clings, even on the stickiest afternoon. It's sleeveless with a simple round neck, it falls to mid-calf, and it has pockets. And the print — pinks and oranges and greens like someone had splashed a paintbox — is the cheeriest thing in my wardrobe. I put it on and I feel about ten years lighter.

Nothing touches me, nothing clings, and I stay cool through the hottest afternoon. And it's the cheeriest thing I own.

A dress this pretty and this comfortable, I assumed, would be sixty pounds. But York Boutique sells direct, so it was £29.95 in the summer sale. I was thrilled.

My neighbour leaned over the fence to say how lovely it was, and asked where it was from. I'll admit I checked before ordering that I could send it back if the size wasn't right — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free — which made it an easy yes. It comes in sizes UK 8 right up to 24, which I was pleased to see.

If the hot days leave you clinging, wilting and dressed in beige like they did me, do treat yourself to a look. The Melisande is rated 4.7 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.