A letter from Dianne
Every summer for forty years I have packed my trousers into a suitcase under the bed. These are the first two pairs I have ever written a letter about.
Six things two pairs of summer trousers get right that every pair I ever put away in November got wrong, written down by a customer, not a shop.
Dianne Prescott · Customer · Epping, Sydney · 5 min read
I am 64, and every year, on the first properly hot weekend, I do the same thing. I fold my trousers into the old blue suitcase, I push it under the bed, and I do not see them again until March. For four months of the year I live in skirts and sit down carefully. Graham calls it the changing of the guard. Then a couple of weeks ago, halfway up the main street at Central Tilba on a 31 degree day, I met the two women who put a stop to it.
Graham and I had a few days at Tuross Head, and Tilba was his idea, for the cheese. By the time we were halfway up that hill everybody else was in shorts, or in a sundress stuck to the backs of their legs, fanning themselves with the map. Then two sisters went past us, Narelle and Heather, both well into their seventies, down from Moruya for the day. Narelle had on a pair of trousers in fine pink stripes. Heather had a cream pair covered in big brown rings. They walked up that hill as if a cool change had come through, and they were going faster than Graham. I asked them, plainly, outside the cheese place. They are the Victoria and the Brooke, from Thompson Sydney, a small Australian boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I ordered the Victoria the week we got home, fully expecting to send it back. I did not, and I went back for the Brooke, and I wrote to the boutique to tell them why. 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 trousers, if you have looked lately, come in two piles. The first pile is the heavy one, proper trousers that are lovely in June and in January feel like wearing a tent in a car park. The second pile is shorts, which solve the heat by showing your knees to the whole of New South Wales.
Trousers you swelter in, or shorts you spend all day tugging down. I stopped accepting that a woman has to choose, and two sisters on a hill at Tilba were the proof.
The first hot Saturday after they came, out walking with a hat I never put on. The suitcase stayed under the bed.
Light enough for a hot day
This is the one that stopped me on the hill. The boutique calls them breathable, and says the Brooke has a light and airy feel that keeps you fresh when the weather warms up. I can report that I wore the Victoria to the shops on a 33 degree Saturday and came home without that feeling of having been wrapped. I have owned trousers that I took off in the laundry before I got to the bedroom. Not these.
The stripes run up and down at the front and across at the side. Graham noticed that before he noticed anything else.
“I wore them to a Christmas lunch on a verandah in 35 degrees and I was the only one not complaining.”
Marion W., MoruyaA high waist that stays comfortable all day
Both pairs sit at the natural waist, and the waistband is elasticated. The boutique says they stay comfortable from breakfast right through to dinner, and I have tested that over a long lunch, a drive home and a cup of tea after. No digging in, and no waistband rolling over itself when you sit down. Thirty years on a front desk teaches you a lot about what a waistband does by three in the afternoon.
“I sat in the car from Bega to Canberra in them and got out the same shape I got in.”
Janice P., BodallaTwo side pockets, so things come with you
I counted, because I always do. There is a pocket at each hip, two in all, and they take my phone and my keys without my having to hand them to Graham, which is half the reason I wear trousers at all. A summer skirt has never once given me a pocket. Narelle had her car keys in hers on the hill, and I noticed that too.
The Brooke down by the water at Narrabeen, with my coffee and a pelican who did not think much of either.
“Proper pockets. I have stopped carrying a handbag to walk the dog.”
Kerrie S., DalmenyA relaxed straight leg that does not cling
This is the part that matters in the heat. The leg is relaxed and straight, and the boutique says it skims rather than clings, which is exactly what I want when it is warm and I have to get in and out of the car twenty times a day. Nothing sticks to the backs of my legs when I stand up. I can walk up a hill in them, and I did, to make sure.
The Brooke on the back verandah in Epping. Those rings are what Heather had on, coming up the hill.
“Loose enough to be cool and still smart enough for the club. I bought a second colour the next week.”
Lynette A., Batemans BayStripes in six colours, and a print people ask about
The Victoria comes in fine stripes in six colourways, blue, pink, lilac, light grey, black and mint green, and I went for the pink because I have not worn pink below the waist since I was a young mum. The Brooke is cream with black and brown rings, and the boutique calls it an easy talking point, which turns out to be true. A woman at the bakery asked about them before she asked what I wanted. Not one of my old summer pairs was ever a talking point. They were beige.
The afternoon the second pair arrived. I laid them out on the bed to make sure I had not gone mad.
“I have the lilac and the mint now. My granddaughter wants to borrow them, which I am taking as a compliment.”
Gail M., MollymookS to 3XL, and twenty pairs to choose from
They go from an S to a 3XL, and there are twenty pairs in the collection, plain colours, stripes and a few prints. I lost an evening to it while Graham watched the cricket. The suitcase is still under the bed, but it has my winter things in it now. Jenny from over the road, who has never paid me a compliment in her life, saw me in the Brooke and asked whether I was going somewhere. I was going to the chemist.
Lyn borrowed the Brooke the day I took them down to show her. She has not given it back.
“I am a 3XL and I have never owned summer trousers I liked. I have three pairs of these now.”
Sharon T., BrouleeThe Victoria and the Brooke, against the suitcase under the bed
You can buy trousers almost anywhere. I know, because I have been packing them away every November for forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Heavy trousers you swelter in
Or shorts, and your knees on show
A waistband that has given up by lunch
No pockets, so Graham carries everything
Beige, so nobody ever asks
Light enough for a hot day
A relaxed straight leg, nothing clings
High elasticated waist, comfortable all day
Two side pockets for phone and keys
Asked about halfway up a hill at Tilba
About the price
I will be straightforward about the price, because it was the thing that made me suspicious. The Victoria is $62.95 and was $126.00. The Brooke is $60.95 and was $122.00.
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 trousers that spent four months of every year in a suitcase, and I have now bought two pairs of these.
If you have spent every summer choosing between sweltering and your knees, these are the two pairs I would hand you instead.
Dianne
The Victoria & Brooke Trousers
- ✓Victoria: fine stripes in six colourways
- ✓Brooke: black and brown rings on cream
- ✓Light and breathable for warm days
- ✓High waist with an elasticated waistband
- ✓Relaxed straight leg and two side pockets, S to 3XL
- ✓Free delivery across Australia
Spring sale on now. The middle sizes are already going.