Women Do Not Stop Wearing a Top Because of the Top. The Annabel Is What I Did About That.

Six things I insisted on, why the edges are bonded rather than stitched, and why it is going out at £29.95.

My name is Emma. My sister Alison and I have had the shop just off the green in Richmond for eleven years, and in that time I have watched an enormous number of women put a perfectly nice top back on the rail.

The reason is almost never the top. It is that they already know what it will look like once it is on, because they know what is underneath it. Every seam and every edge and every join prints straight through a plain jersey, and after a while you simply stop buying anything smooth.

That is a solvable problem and it has been solved for years in the sports trade, and almost nobody bothers to bring it into ordinary everyday things. So we had the Annabel made, and I went in with six things.

1No wire. And still a shape.

This is the argument everybody expects me to lose. A wire gives lift and it also digs, and by four in the afternoon most women I know are counting the hours. Instead of a wire there is a gather at the centre front that pulls the shape up from underneath. It is not the same as a wire and I will not pretend it is. It is better for a day that lasts sixteen hours.

2Edges cut and bonded, not stitched.

This is the whole thing, and it is the one nobody notices until they see the result. A stitched hem makes a ridge, and a ridge prints through a plain top. Here the edges are cut and bonded flat, so there is nothing standing proud of the fabric. It costs more per piece and it is invisible, which is exactly why it is the first thing that gets taken out when somebody is looking for a saving.

3A band wide enough to stay down.

A narrow band rides up over the course of a day and then you are adjusting yourself in a shop doorway. This one is wide and soft and it sits still. It also spreads the weight rather than concentrating it, which is what people usually mean when they say a wire is uncomfortable.

4Straps that stay where you set them.

Proper sliders that hold, on a strap wide enough not to cut in. I have lost count of the women who have told me they spend the day hitching one shoulder back up. It is a small piece of hardware and it is the difference between a thing you wear and a thing you tolerate.

5Soft enough to forget.

The fabric is a fine stretch jersey rather than the stiff moulded sort, so it moves with you and it does not hold a shape of its own when you take it off. Several of our customers sleep in it. That was not a design brief, but it is the clearest compliment a thing like this can get.

6Eight colours, including the ones that actually disappear.

Beige, caramel, black, brown, pink, green, blue and white. The first four are there because under a pale top the only colour that truly vanishes is the one closest to your own skin, and for years the trade offered exactly one shade and called it nude. Choosing the right one matters more than any other decision here.

Set against what is in the drawer

	The usual one	The Annabel
Support	Wire that digs by four o'clock	A front gather, no wire at all
Under a top	Seams and edges print through	Bonded edges, nothing to show
The band	Narrow, rides up	Wide and soft, stays down
The straps	Slide, and get hitched all day	Sliders that hold
The colour	One shade called nude	Eight, four of them close to skin

Nobody should be quietly retiring clothes they like because of what is underneath them. That is the whole reason the Annabel exists.

Why it is £29.95

We buy in small quantities and this year the cloth and the shipping both went up on us, and neither went onto the ticket. The Annabel came in at £89 and it is going out at £29.95. More than one and it drops again: 15% on two, 20% on three, 25% on four or more.

I will be plain about it. Eight colours across six sizes is a great many boxes for a shop our size, and some of those combinations have moved and some have not. We cannot carry the ones that have not into next spring. When a colour is finished it is finished.

Eleven years behind this counter has taught me that a woman who finds one of these that works does not buy one. That is the bet Alison and I are making at £29.95.

The best thing anybody has said about this one is that they forgot they had it on.

What comes back to us is always the same two things: the edges, and the colour that finally disappears. If there are things in your wardrobe you have quietly stopped wearing, this is where I would start.

Emma, for Emma & Alison Winslow · Richmond

See the Annabel at £29.95 →

This is a letter from one of the two sisters who run The Winslow Sisters. Prices and colours shown are correct at the time of writing and change as the run sells through. This page is a paid advertisement for The Winslow Sisters. The Winslow Sisters · Richmond · Free UK delivery · 30-day returns. Your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are not affected.