A Letter From Eleanor · Founder of Sanibel Boutique

Sanibel Island, Florida · June 2026

I am Eleanor, and I started Sanibel Boutique 22 years ago, in a small shop a few streets back from the water on Sanibel Island. In all that time I have made a great many summer tops. The Zamma is the one I am proudest of.

It is the one I reach for myself on the hottest days. It is the one women stop each other about in the grocery car park. And of everything we are clearing as we close the island shop and move online, it is the piece I most wanted to write to you about.

I should tell you why I made it in the first place. For years I watched the same thing happen to women our age. The summer tops made for us fell into two piles. The first looked lovely on the hanger and felt like a sauna the moment the heat found you. The second felt comfortable and made you look like you had given up. I never accepted that a woman had to choose between the two. The Zamma is my answer, and I argued for six things when I made it, usually with a supplier who wanted me to do the cheaper thing instead.

1

Real 100% linen that breathes.

Not a blend, and not the polyester they sell you as linen look. The real thing, woven to breathe, so it stays cool when the heat sits heavy and softens like a good cotton sheet the more you wash it.

★★★★★

"It is the only top I can wear in the worst of August without sweating through it by lunchtime."

Carol R., Fort Myers

2

An open collar and one wooden button.

I wanted a neckline that flatters without fuss. A soft open collar that sits right on a real neck, and a single large wooden button, the small detail that turns a plain top into something women ask you about.

★★★★★

"I get stopped about that one little wooden button more than anything else I own."

Diane M., Naples

3

Sleeves that cover the tops of your arms.

Without adding a single degree of warmth, and made to roll softly to the elbow on the days you want them shorter. It is the thing women my age thank me for most.

★★★★★

"Finally, sleeves that cover the tops of my arms and still keep me cool. I have it in three colours now."

Patricia L., Sarasota

The Zamma, against the tops you have been buying

You can find a summer top for sixty dollars almost anywhere. I know, because before I made the Zamma I bought a great many of them, trying to find the one that did not let me down by lunchtime. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

I refuse to make a summer top that asks a woman to choose between staying cool and looking like herself. That is the whole reason the Zamma exists.

Why the Zamma is clearing now

We are closing the island shop and moving Sanibel Boutique online, so the whole summer collection is clearing, the Zamma with it. It is now $59.95, from $129.95, and when you take more than one colour the discount stacks further, up to 30 percent on top.

I will be plain about it. At this price we are barely breaking even on it. I am telling you because it is true, and because once we hand back the keys at the end of the season, this price goes with the shop. There is no plan to bring it back.

If twenty two years of running this little shop has taught me anything, it is that a woman who tries the Zamma once usually comes back for another colour. That is the quiet bet I am placing in writing you this letter at $59.95.

Folded and ready to go out. Wrapped by hand, the way every order has left this shop for 22 years.

It is the top I am proudest of in 22 years. I would rather it go to women who will wear it than sit folded in a box.

The reviews say the same things I have, over and over. 4.8 stars across 847 women. If you have ever wanted a summer top that keeps you cool without clinging, this is the one I would put in your hands myself, while the colours are still in stock.

— Eleanor