Real stories · The five-minute party dress

Getting ready for the party took me five minutes — the party took considerably longer

The party question, answered in five minutes flat — that's what this dress is, and December suddenly owes me several hours back. The maths never used to work: an hour in front of the mirror, three outfits auditioned and rejected, a necklace negotiation — all for an evening spent holding a mince pie in somebody's dim sitting room.

I kept thinking: there must be a shortcut. There is.

It's the Silvoria from a British label called York Boutique — a black shift dress with a fine all-over shimmer and a flattering V-neck, short-sleeved and easy, worn over black opaque tights with ankle boots now the evenings have turned cold.

The shift cut is the whole secret. It skims everything and clings to nothing, so there's no holding-in, no adjusting at the table and no regretting the dessert — while the shimmer does all the festive work on its own. No necklace needed. Nothing to match. The V-neck flatters, the hem behaves, and the entire operation is: dress, tights, boots, lipstick, door.

A shift that skims everything and a shimmer that needs no jewellery — which is why 'getting ready' now takes five timed minutes.

It's £24.95 in the sale — half the usual £50, which for a dress that will do the whole party season is barely the price of the taxi there. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery, I checked, out of habit rather than doubt.

At the club dinner Sandra looked me up and down and demanded to know how long I'd taken. I told her the truth. She didn't believe a word of it, which I have decided to treat as the compliment it secretly is.

If your Decembers also start with an hour at the mirror, do have a look before the invitations arrive. The Silvoria is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 230 women, in UK sizes 8/10 to 18/20 — and at £24.95 the party season rather books itself.