A letter from Dianne about the Tara and the Anne
I am five foot three, and for forty years I stayed away from big flowers. This is the first dress I have ever written a letter about.
Six things two long floral dresses get right that forty years of tiny prints and navy got wrong, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Dianne Prescott · Customer · Epping, Sydney · 5 min read
My mother had a rule about prints. Big flowers were for tall women, she said, and a little woman in a big print looks like she has been upholstered. I am 64 and five foot three, and I have obeyed her for forty years: tiny sprigs, polka dots, and a great deal of navy. Then, this spring, on a lunch cruise up the Murray on an old paddle steamer out of Mannum, a woman even shorter than me climbed the stairs to the top deck in the biggest peonies on the boat, and looked better than any of us.
Her name is Yvonne, she is from Murray Bridge, and she is, in her own words, five foot nothing. Her dress was the Tara, great coral peonies and deep green leaves on cream and sage. Mine is the Anne, white lilies on ivory, and I went back for a Tara as well. They are from Thompson Sydney, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I ordered the first one the week we got home, fully expecting to send it back. I did not, and I wrote to the boutique to tell them why, and they asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read. So here it is, the six things these get right.
Summer dresses for a smaller woman, if you have looked lately, come in two piles. The first pile is the sensible one, a little print you cannot make out from across the room, in navy or black, the kind of dress nobody has ever remembered you in. The second pile is the pretty one, big bright flowers on a stark white or a loud colour, which looks lovely on the girl in the photograph and like a tablecloth on the rest of us.
A dress nobody notices, or a dress that wears you. I stopped accepting that a woman of my height has to choose, and Yvonne on the top deck was the proof.
Yvonne at the rail on the top deck, with the cliffs going by. I took it for her, and kept a copy.
The flowers are big, and that is the whole point
This is the thing I would tell you if I only had a minute. The Tara has peonies the size of a dinner plate, one coral-pink with a golden centre right across the waist and a great cream one over the shoulder, with deep green leaves running down the front. The Anne has big white lilies with orange-gold centres. What my mother never told me is that one big flower reads from across a room as one lovely thing, while a hundred tiny ones just read as busy. On Yvonne it looked like she had been to a garden, not like she had been swallowed by one.
The Tara up close. That peony is the size of my hand with the fingers spread.
“I am five foot one and I always thought big prints were not for me. I have had more compliments in this dress than in anything I own.”
Marion K., Tailem BendThe background is soft, so the big flowers do not shout
The other half of the trick is what the flowers sit on. The Tara is cream washed with soft sage, so the coral peonies have somewhere quiet to sit. The Anne is a pale ivory with only a whisper of grey and green behind the lilies, which the listing calls crisp and bright for sunny days, and it is. Neither one is a stark white or a loud colour, which is why a big print on them looks gentle instead of brave.
The Anne, the afternoon it arrived. Graham asked if I had bought a dress or a garden.
“The colours are so soft. It looks fresh without making me feel like I am trying too hard.”
Lorraine P., WaikerieOne gathered seam at the waist gives it a shape
Long dresses on a short woman can turn into a tent, which was the other half of my mother’s warning. These have one soft gathered seam at the waist, and the skirt falls loose and roomy from there, so there is a shape to you instead of a lot of fabric. Nothing pulls, nothing clings, and it moves when you walk. Yvonne owns the Anne as well, and she sent me a photograph of herself in it down at the wharf the week after. I wear mine to every lunch now, and by dessert I have forgotten I have it on.
Yvonne in her Anne down at the wharf, the paddle steamer tied up behind her. She sent it with the words: told you.
“Comfortable all day and it still has a shape. I did not look swamped, which is what I always worry about.”
Gwen H., LoxtonA V-neck and three-quarter sleeves
Both dresses have a plain V-neck, which the listing says pairs well with pearls or gold, and that is exactly how Yvonne wore hers, with one gold chain. The sleeves stop just below the elbow with a soft gathered edge. That covers the tops of the arms, which I have been quietly hiding since the Sydney Olympics, but it does not look like you are hiding anything, and it is cool enough for a warm spring day on the water.
The Tara, folded on the kitchen table the morning it came. The V-neck and the sleeve, and that peony.
“The sleeves are the perfect length. Arms covered, but I never once felt hot.”
Pat W., RenmarkSide pockets, which I did not know I needed
Both have side pockets. On the boat Yvonne had her phone in one and her sunglasses in the other, and she went up and down those steep paddle-steamer stairs with one hand on the rail and nothing in the other. Meanwhile I was on the bottom step with my handbag over one shoulder, my cardigan over the other, and Graham holding my hat. That was the moment I decided to ask her.
“Pockets in a long dress. I keep my phone and my glasses in them all day and I never have to hunt for my bag.”
Joan S., BarmeraLong to the ankle, the same cut from S to 5XL, and twenty-odd designs
They fall to the ankle and come in every size from S right up to 5XL, the same cut the whole way up, which I wish more places would bother with. The Tara and the Anne are only two of them. The collection runs to about twenty-two long floral designs, from white watercolour roses to sage collage prints and pink and red roses, and I spent an evening on the sofa choosing while Graham watched the cricket. Lyn, Graham’s sister, is getting one for Christmas, and I have not told her yet that it has big flowers.
Both of them on the bed, peonies on the left and lilies on the right. Forty years of navy, finished.
“I bought one and went straight back for a second print. They are the only long dresses I own that I actually wear.”
Carol D., StrathalbynThe Tara and the Anne, against the dresses I had been buying
You can buy a summer dress almost anywhere. I know, because I have owned most of them, and given the rest to the op shop. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Tiny prints nobody can make out across a room
Navy, black or a print that reads as busy
Shapeless, or tight in all the wrong places
Nowhere to put your phone or your sunglasses
Nobody has ever asked where you got it
Big peonies or big lilies, one lovely thing at a glance
Soft cream, sage and ivory behind the flowers
One gathered waist seam, roomy to the ankle
Side pockets for your phone and your sunglasses
Asked about on the top deck of a paddle steamer
About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The Tara is $69.95, and it was $131.00. The Anne is $75.95, and it was $152.00.
The boutique says the spring sale price is about making room for the summer stock, selling directly, with no middleman taking a cut, and that at this price they are barely making anything on them. That is their arithmetic, not mine. What I can tell you is that I have paid more than that for a navy dress I wore twice, and I bought two of these.
If you have spent forty years in tiny prints because somebody once told you big flowers were not for women like us, this is the dress I would hand you instead.
Dianne
The Tara & Anne Vintage Floral Maxi Dresses
- ✓Tara: big coral peonies on cream and sage, $69.95
- ✓Anne: big white lilies on ivory, $75.95 (was $152.00)
- ✓V-neck and three-quarter sleeves
- ✓Gathered waist seam, relaxed skirt to the ankle
- ✓Side pockets
- ✓Sizes S to 5XL, free delivery across Australia
Spring sale on now. The middle sizes are already going.