A letter from a reader

At 62, I had a wardrobe full of clothes and still nothing to throw on of a morning.

I almost did not write this down, because it is only a dress and I am not the sort of woman who gets excited about that sort of thing any more. But three different women stopped to ask me about it at a garden lunch on Saturday, and when that happens at 62 you start to think there might be something in it.

My trouble was never having too little, it was having a wardrobe full of things and still standing in front of it every morning with nothing that quite worked. This one was too fussy, that one too warm, the other needed ironing and something underneath and a special occasion to justify it. So more often than not I gave up and put on the same tired trousers, and felt a little dull all day for it.

I had decided that a dress I could throw on without thinking and a dress I actually felt lovely in were two different dresses.

So I stood at the wardrobe each morning, and made do.

Then I saw it on a friend

A friend of mine had one on at a coffee morning and looked so easily put together that I assumed she had made an effort, and she laughed and said she had thrown it on in two minutes. It is from Nottingham Boutique, a little boutique that has been quietly looking after women our age for a few years, and they had their summer sale on. It is called the Mischa, a soft green leaf print that goes with everything. I ordered mine that same evening before I could talk myself out of it.

What happened at the lunch

I threw it on for a garden lunch, honestly without much thought, expecting to feel as ordinary as I usually did. Instead I felt easy and elegant at once, and three separate women came over to ask me where it was from. Three. My friend Sue told me I always look so put together these days, and I did not have the heart to tell her it is the same easy dress half the time.

That was the moment it clicked for me. I had spent years believing I had to choose between easy and elegant, and here was one dress that quietly did both.

Three things I have learned since

One. It does for everything. I wear it with my flat sandals for a wander round the shops, then a necklace and a little heel lift it for a lunch or an evening. One dress, dressed up or down, and I never have to stand at the wardrobe wondering.

Two. It is comfortable to forget. The shape falls soft and easy and skims straight over everything rather than clinging, and the fabric is so light I genuinely forget I have it on. Comfortable from morning right through to the evening.

Three. It has pockets. Proper side pockets, deep enough for a tissue and my glasses, which is a small thing that pleases me more than it probably should.

About the price

I will be honest, when I saw the price in the sale I was a bit suspicious. A dress this easy to wear and this pretty usually costs a great deal more, and it turns out it usually does.

The Mischa is £29.95. It was £60.00.

There was no catch. It arrived quickly, it was every bit as light and easy as my friend promised, and it looked exactly like the picture, which we all know is not always the way.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered a second one in the navy. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if I am honest made me trust it more. One woman had written, "The one dress I reach for every morning, it does for everything and I forget I have it on." That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were sat in the garden and you asked me, this is what I would say.

If you have a wardrobe full of clothes and still stand in front of it every morning with nothing that quite works for the day ahead, then it is worth ten minutes of your evening to go and have a look.

Not because a dress will change your life. It will not. But there is something in reaching for one easy thing and feeling both comfortable and rather lovely all day, instead of dull and make-do, that I had quietly given up on, and I would rather you did not give up on it too.

Two practical things. The sale is on at the moment, half of what it was, and the middle sizes go first, which I found out because the size I wanted had nearly sold out by the time I went back for a second colour. And once the summer stock has sold through, that is it until next year.

I do not stand at the wardrobe wondering any more. I just reach for the same easy dress, and feel lovely.

Caroline