I Used to Change Tops Twice Before Lunch. This Summer I Stopped Choosing at All.

A note from a reader who found her summer uniform, and why the secret is a hem.

On the lanai the night before, which is the whole system now.

I am 64 years old, and until this June my summer tops fell into two piles. The ones that looked nice and stuck to me by ten, and the ones that stayed cool and made me look like I had given up.

You know both piles. Everyone our age owns both piles.

Then my neighbor came over for coffee in a rust colored linen top I had not seen before, and she looked cool, and pulled together, and completely unbothered, all three at once, which frankly seemed like cheating. It is called the Tessa, from a small 22 year old island label called Sanibel Boutique that is clearing its collection while it moves online. I ordered the same one in the same color before she finished her coffee. My husband Graham would tell you that is very unlike me. He would be lying.

What makes this one different

Three things, and I will keep them short.

1. It is real linen. Not linen look, not a blend. It breathes the way only the real thing does, it does not stick when I walk Poppy at noon, and it has been through my machine four times now and comes out softer each round, like good sheets.

2. The neckline sits right. A soft V that flatters without ever needing adjusting. Deep enough to be graceful, never so deep that you think about it. I put it on and forget it exists, which is the highest praise a neckline can earn.

3. The hem is the secret. Instead of hanging straight like a sack, the Tessa gathers into a wide smocked band that sits low, right where you want a top to hold. So the body stays loose and airy, the air moves through, and the hem quietly gives it a shape. It skims everything, clings to nothing, and it does not ride up when I reach the top shelf.

The hem doing the quiet work. This is the part the other tops are missing.

Loose where you want air. Held where you want shape. That is the entire trick, and almost nobody does it.

→ Read about the Tessa

How it became the uniform

The parcel came wrapped in tissue with a handwritten note from the founder, which I did not expect at this price and which is now on my refrigerator.

The note came with the first one. The second and third orders were entirely my own fault.

Now the evening routine is this. I hang the Tessa over the chair on the lanai with whatever pants are clean, and in the morning there is nothing to decide. Brown with white pants for the market. Black with my good sandals when we go out. The apricot when I want someone at book club to ask me about it, which someone always does.

Graham calls it my uniform. He is teasing. I am not. A uniform means the decision is made, and the decision is a good one, every single day, in real August heat.

The uniform, out doing its rounds at the flower stand.

Now, about the price

The Tessa is $62.95 right now, down from $134.95, while the boutique clears its summer collection during the anniversary sale. I looked around before I ordered the second one. Chico's wanted $89 for their linen top. J.Jill wanted $79. Neither has the smocked hem, which is the entire reason this one works.

The reviews under it read like my own diary. 4.8 stars from 847 women, nearly all our age, most of them on their second or third color.

And the boutique stacks the discount when you buy more. Two pieces take 15 percent off the whole order, up to 30 percent as you add more. Two Tessas cost less than the one Chico's top, and you will reach for them more often. That is not a guess, that is my July.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you were here on my lanai with an iced tea, I would say this. Start with the brown, it goes with everything and hides an afternoon. The white is crisp with navy pants, and the black does dinner without trying. Sizes run S to 3XL, and my neighbor tells me the brown was low in her size when she reordered, which is how these things go once women find them.

Hang it over the chair tonight. Stop choosing in the morning. That is the whole gift of it.

While the colors are still in stock.

— Susan