The navy dress with a waist I can actually eat lunch in
At 62, I found a navy dress that gives me a shape without squeezing me
Six things the Mischa gets right that everyday dresses get wrong, from a woman who is not a fashion writer.
Caroline Richards · Customer · Nottinghamshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Caroline, I am 62, I live in Nottinghamshire, and for years I have been caught between dresses that squeeze me into a shape and dresses that give me none at all. So this is not a review. It is a woman who had stopped believing a dress could do both, saying she was wrong.
The one I am writing about is called the Mischa, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw it on a friend at a garden lunch, in a lovely navy, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
A fitted waist, at my age. I know. I thought fitted meant holding my breath and thinking about my middle all afternoon. Then I put it on, and it nipped in just enough and skimmed the rest. Read on.
Here is what a lifetime of dresses taught me. Everyday dresses come in two piles. The shapeless pile, the sacks and the tents that are comfortable enough but hang off you like a bin liner. And the fitted pile, the ones with the shape you want and a zip that digs in and a waist you cannot eat your lunch in. I had decided you could have a shape, or you could be comfortable, but never both.
A shapeless sack, or a shape I could not breathe in. Those were my two piles, and I was tired of choosing.
The Mischa is the first dress I have owned that is neither, and having barely taken the navy off since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. Such a pretty navy, and I could hardly believe the price on the tag.
THE NAVY FLORAL IS CLASSIC, NEVER FRUMPY
It is a proper navy scattered with a fine little white floral, the sort of print that reads as timeless rather than fussy. Navy has always been the one colour that looks smart on everyone our age, and the tiny flowers keep it soft and pretty rather than severe. It does not look like the curtains and it does not look like a uniform, which is a narrow gap to hit and it hits it.
Navy with a fine white floral. Classic, and quietly forgiving.
The navy is so flattering and the little floral keeps it pretty. I have worn it to three different things already.
Christine B., West BridgfordIT HAS PROPER SLEEVES
It has real short sleeves that cover the tops of the arms, not the mean little cap sleeves that leave them on show. Covered where I want to be, and cool enough for a warm day. For a dress I can wear to a lunch without reaching for a cardigan, that matters more than it should.
Proper sleeves that cover my arms, and I do not need a cardigan over the top. Just right for our age.
Margaret E., SouthwellA FITTED WAIST AND A FLARED SKIRT GIVE YOU A SHAPE
This is the part that won me. It nips in gently at the waist and then the skirt flares out and away, so you get a proper waist and a proper shape, but nothing pulls tight and nothing clings to the middle. There is room to sit, to eat and to breathe, and still a shape in the mirror. I had all but given up on finding that.
A real waist without the squeeze, and the skirt skims everything below. I felt shaped, not stuffed in.
Dorothy S., BeestonIT HAS REAL POCKETS
Proper side pockets, deep enough to be useful. My phone goes in one and my glasses in the other, and I have stopped carrying a bag round the garden and down to the shops. A small thing, until you have it, and then every dress without them is a quiet disappointment.
Real side pockets. Phone in one, glasses in the other.
Pockets, in a dress this pretty. My phone goes straight in and I leave the handbag at home.
Pauline H., ArnoldIT IS LIGHT AND EASY TO WEAR
It is light and it moves, the sort of dress you forget you have on. I have worn it to a lunch, round the garden and out for the day, and it has come up fresh each time with next to no fuss. Easy is its own kind of elegant, I have decided.
So light and easy, and it does not crease. I have practically lived in it since it arrived.
Eileen T., NewarkNAVY GOES WITH EVERYTHING, AND IT FITS FROM AN 8 TO A 24
Navy is the one shade that goes with every shoe and every cardigan I own, so it works dressed up with a heel or down with a flat sandal. And the sizing runs honestly from an 8 all the way to a 24, so it actually fits real women rather than only the sample size. It comes in a couple of other prints too, but the navy is the one I keep reaching for.
On the wardrobe door, ready for whatever the day turns out to be.
I am a 20 and it is genuinely flattering, not a tent. Navy goes with everything I own.
Maureen C., MansfieldThe Mischa, against the dresses you have been putting up with
You can find an everyday dress for thirty-odd pounds almost anywhere. I know, I have a wardrobe of them. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Shapeless, or fitted and squeezing
Sleeveless, arms on show
No pockets worth the name
A loud print, or dull and safe
Comfortable or flattering, never both
A fitted waist without the squeeze
Proper short sleeves that cover the arms
Real side pockets
A classic navy floral that flatters
Fits from an 8 to a 24
About the price
The Mischa is £29.95 at the moment. It was £60.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that they are clearing the summer stock as the season turns, and once it has gone it is gone until next year. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with a thing, and I have found nothing wrong with this one.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
Folded for the drawer. It takes up next to no room and does not crease.
If you have made the same weary peace with either shapeless or squeezing that I had, and you would rather like a shape you can breathe in, this is the dress I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
MISCHA | EFFORTLESS FLORAL MIDI DRESS
- A classic navy with a fine white floral print
- Fitted waist and flared skirt for a flattering shape
- Proper short sleeves that cover the arms
- Real side pockets
- Lightweight and easy to wear all day
- Three prints, UK sizes 8 to 24
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
Summer stock clearing now — the middle sizes tend to go first.