Real stories · Button up, and you're dressed

The striped shirt dress I button up and I'm done — cool, easy, and I went back for a second

A dress I could just button up and be dressed — no matching, no thinking, and cool enough for a warm day — that's what I'd been quietly wishing for all summer. I'm 67, and warm-weather mornings had become a small daily muddle: this top with those trousers? Too hot. That skirt? Needs a particular blouse that's in the wash. I'd stand at the wardrobe far longer than I'd like to admit, and half the time end up in the same tired thing.

What I wanted was one dress that did the whole job on its own — that I could put on in a minute, that stayed cool, and that looked properly nice for the shops or a lunch without me having to think about it.

Then I found the Sophia shirt dress from a British label called York Boutique — a timeless striped shirt dress, and I chose the soft pink stripe.

It's become the easiest thing in my wardrobe. It's a proper shirt dress: a collar, a row of buttons down the front, and three-quarter sleeves you can turn back — so it looks crisp and put-together the moment it's on. The fabric is soft and light and lets the air through, which is why it stays cool and never clings, even on the close days. It's cut loose and easy, falls to mid-calf, and has little splits at the sides so I can actually walk in it. Button it up, and I'm dressed. That's it.

Button it up and I'm dressed. Cool, loose, and it looks like I've made an effort when I honestly haven't. I went back for a second one.

A dress this well made, I assumed, would be seventy pounds. But York Boutique sells direct, so it was £34.95 in the summer sale. I'll be honest, I paused at that for a moment. Then I thought about how many mornings it would sort out, and that rather settled it.

A woman at the garden centre stopped me to ask where it was from — and here's the thing. When I went back to look for a second colour, I found they do a whole set of dresses like this one: the same easy, cool sort of thing, all made to be worn on ordinary days. And the second dress came cheaper than the first, the third cheaper again. So I ended up with two, and I don't regret either. I'd checked before ordering that I could send them back if the size wasn't right — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free — which made trying them no risk at all.

If your summer mornings have turned into a wardrobe muddle like mine had, do treat yourself to a look at the whole set — the Sophia is the one I started with, but there are seventeen of them, all at £34.95 in the summer sale instead of £70, and if you find two you like, the second one's cheaper. The Sophia is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 300 women, and the middle sizes always seem to go first.