Real stories · Nothing digs in

By the end of a long lunch, every waistband I own starts to dig in — this dress doesn't have one

No waistband, nothing digging in, and still smart at the end of a three-hour lunch — that's this dress. I'm 67, and I've reached the age where a waistband is a timer. Trousers and skirts start polite at noon, and by the time the pudding arrives I'm quietly undoing a button under the tablecloth. Sunday lunches, birthday teas, a long afternoon in the car — the clothes always give in before the day does.

What I wanted was something smart with nothing at the middle to argue with.

Then I found the Seraviellea from a British label called York Boutique — a long-sleeved midi dress in deep burgundy with a soft tonal leaf print. There's green, blue, black, purple and brown too.

It's cut to skim rather than grip, with nothing gathering or fastening at the waist — which is why it feels exactly the same at four o'clock as it did at noon. It smooths and flatters the middle instead of squeezing it, and it's comfortable all day: sitting, standing, reaching for the gravy, folding into the car.

Cut to skim, not grip, with nothing at the waist — which is why it feels the same at four o'clock as it did at noon.

At £34.95 — half the usual £70 — it's cheaper than the 'forgiving' trousers I bought last Christmas and still couldn't sit down in.

It has done one birthday tea, two Sunday lunches and a long drive to my sister Joan's, and Joan — who admitted she undid her skirt in the car on the way home — wants one in the green. I did check before ordering that I could send it back if it didn't suit — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free.

If your waistbands also run out of patience before you do, do have a look. The Seraviellea is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 230 women, it comes in six colours, in UK sizes 8 to 18 — and the burgundy goes quickly before Christmas.