Real stories · Festive from the waist up

I'm done buying party dresses for three evenings a year — this blouse does December now

Festive from the waist up, comfortable all evening — that's the whole idea of this blouse, and it has quietly retired the party-dress question in this house. Every December, the same maths: the drinks, the dinner, the do — three evenings, one expensive dress that feels like a costume by nine o'clock and then lives in the wardrobe for the other 362 days.

Nobody at a dinner table sees below your waist anyway. It took me until 67 to act on that.

Then I found the Merelith from a British label called York Boutique — a softly luminous blouse with a beautifully draped, pleated neckline and a neat collar, in a warm champagne-gold. There are eight other colours, including a black I'm circling.

The drape is the clever part. The pleated folds at the neckline frame the face and catch the candlelight — which is why it does everything a sequin dress promises — while the relaxed fit falls loosely instead of clinging, so it's as comfortable as my everyday tops. Black trousers, done. Under a plain cardigan it even does ordinary Tuesdays, which no party dress has ever managed.

A luminous drape that catches the candlelight, in a fit as easy as a Tuesday top — which is why one blouse now does the whole of December.

It's £29.95 in the sale — half the usual £60, which is rather less than one party dress per three evenings. I did check I could send it back if it didn't suit — a fortnight, free delivery — which settled the ordering.

At the first dinner of the season Margaret looked at me across the candles and said 'you look lovely — is that new?' It is, Margaret. And unlike its predecessors, it'll still be earning its keep in February.

If you're also done dressing like a bauble for three evenings a year, do have a look — before the December diary fills. The Merelith is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 210 women, comes in nine colours, in UK sizes 8/10 to 18/20 — and at half price the champagne goes first.