The dress everyone thinks cost a fortune
At 62, I found a dress that looks designer and cost me under thirty pounds
Six things the Rina 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 I have spent years assuming that anything which looked genuinely stylish must cost a fortune I was not going to spend. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about that, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Rina, 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, a striking black-and-white dress I was sure had cost her the earth, 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 bold black-and-white print, at my age. I know. I thought that sort of thing was for gallery openings and women half my age. Then I saw how easy and elegant it looked on my friend, and I asked her, plainly, what it was. Read on.
Here is what a lifetime of dresses taught me. Stylish dresses come in two piles. The expensive pile, the ones that genuinely look like something and cost more than I will admit to. And the cheap pile, the ones I can afford, that look exactly as cheap as they were the moment I put them on. I had decided you paid for looking good, one way or another, and there was no way round it.
Pay a fortune to look stylish, or pay little and look it. That was the bargain I thought I was stuck with.
The Rina is the first dress I have owned that broke that rule, and having worn it and been asked about it more times than I can count, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. I genuinely double-checked the price, certain there had been a mistake.
THE PRINT LOOKS LIKE ART, NOT A BARGAIN
It is a modern black line print on a soft white, all irregular strokes and blocks, like something an artist drew by hand. It looks considered and expensive, the sort of print you would expect on a dress three or four times the price. Every single person who has asked me about it has guessed far more than I paid, and I have let them.
A hand-drawn black line print on white. It looks like art, not a bargain.
Everyone assumes it is a designer piece. The print is striking and looks worth far more than it cost.
Christine B., West BridgfordBLACK AND WHITE GOES WITH EVERYTHING
Black and white is the one combination that never dates and goes with every single thing I own. A tan sandal, a red lip, a denim jacket, my good gold earrings, all of it works. It dresses up for a dinner and down for the shops without a second thought. One dress, and it has quietly replaced about four.
It goes with absolutely everything, every shoe and jacket I own. I reach for it constantly.
Margaret E., SouthwellTHE RELAXED SHAPE SKIMS, NEVER CLINGS
It has an easy, relaxed shape that glides over the body rather than gripping it, with a soft dropped waist that skims the middle and the hips. There is nothing tight and nothing to hold in. You look considered and you feel completely comfortable, which is a combination I had rather given up on.
It skims everything and clings to nothing. I look put together and I can breathe. Perfect.
Dorothy S., BeestonIT HAS REAL POCKETS
Proper side pockets, deep enough to be useful. My phone in one and my glasses in the other, and I have stopped carrying a bag round the garden and 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 smart. My phone goes straight in and I leave the handbag at home.
Pauline H., ArnoldIT IS SLEEVELESS AND COOL, AND LAYERS EASILY
It is sleeveless and light, so on a warm day your skin can breathe. And if, like me, you are not always keen on bare arms, it takes a little cardigan, a linen shirt or a denim jacket over the top without a fuss. Cool when it is warm, covered when you want to be, which is exactly right for our summers.
Lovely and cool, and I throw a jacket over it when I want my arms covered. It works every way.
Eileen T., NewarkIT DOES NOT CREASE, AND FITS FROM AN 8 TO A 24
It is a wrinkle-resistant fabric, so it comes out of the wash and the wardrobe ready to wear, with no ironing to speak of. And the sizing runs honestly from a UK 8 all the way to a 24, so it actually fits real women rather than only the sample size. Stylish, easy and in your size, which should not feel rare and somehow does.
On the wardrobe door, ready for whatever the day turns out to be.
I am a 22 and it is genuinely flattering, not a tent. No ironing either. I could not be happier.
Maureen C., BinghamThe Rina, against the dresses you have been choosing between
You can spend a fortune to look stylish, or spend a little and look cheap. I know, I have done plenty of both. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Expensive to look genuinely stylish
Or cheap, and it shows
Clingy, or shapeless
No pockets worth the name
Creases, and never in your size
Looks designer, costs under thirty pounds
A print that looks like art
Relaxed shape that skims, never clings
Real side pockets
Wrinkle-resistant, fits from an 8 to a 24
About the price
The Rina 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 paying for style or looking cheap that I had, and you would rather like a dress that looks a great deal more than it costs, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
RINA | PRINTED MIDI DRESS
- A modern black-and-white print that looks designer
- Black and white goes with everything you own
- Relaxed sleeveless shape that skims, never clings
- Real side pockets
- Lightweight and cool, layers easily
- Wrinkle-resistant, UK sizes 8 to 24
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
Summer stock clearing now — the middle sizes tend to go first.