Eleven Years of Selling Dresses, and the Theodosia Is the One I Kept for Myself

What I held out for when we had it made, where it beats the dresses in the shops at three times the money, and why it is going out at £52.95.

My name is Emma. My sister Alison and I have run this shop just off the green in Richmond for eleven years, and in that time we have hung a great many dresses on the rail and taken most of them down again. The Theodosia is the one I own myself, in my own size, and reach for whenever there is something on and I have left myself twenty minutes.

Of everything going out in this clearance, it is the one I did not want to let past without saying something about it first.

Here is the problem we kept running into. An occasion dress is usually one of two things. Either it looks marvellous in the shop and quietly grips you from the second course onwards, or it is comfortable and announces to the room that you have stopped bothering. Alison and I got tired of standing behind the counter watching women pick between those. So when we had the Theodosia made, I went in with a list of six things I would not move on. Most of them cost more than the alternative, and I was told so at some length.

1Cloth with something going on in it.

A plain flat weave at this money looks exactly like a plain flat weave and no amount of clever cutting rescues it. The Theodosia has a slub running through it, the kind of uneven thread that reads from the other side of a room, and that is doing most of the work of making it look expensive. I will tell you straight that it is a polyester and linen mix rather than pure linen. That was deliberate. Pure linen looks wonderful for about eleven minutes and then you sit in a car. This holds its shape and gets out of the car in the same condition it got in.

2A sleeve that goes past the elbow.

I have the same conversation in this shop every summer and it is always about arms. So the sleeve on the Theodosia is full, gathered so it stands off the skin rather than clinging to it, and it finishes on the forearm, which nobody has ever complained to me about. The factory wanted to take it up to the elbow to save cloth. I sent that sample back twice.

3Pockets you can actually put something in.

Not the token sort that will take a folded receipt and nothing more. These are dropped into the side seam where the drape swallows them, and they will take a phone and keys with nothing showing. I have left the house without a handbag more times in this dress than I care to admit.

4It has to be finished on its own.

Five little flower buttons at the throat and a fabric rose at each cuff. That is the whole reason you can put this on and stop. No hunting through the dish on the hall table for a necklace, no arranging a scarf in the mirror while somebody sits outside with the engine running. For anybody getting ready in twenty minutes that is not decoration, it is the difference between going and not going.

5Straight down from the shoulder, finishing mid-calf.

It falls away from the shoulder rather than sitting on the waist, so it passes over the middle instead of tracing it. The hem lands mid-calf. Higher than that and you spend the day pulling at it, lower and it starts wearing you. This is a length you can do the garden in, drive in, and then go out in without changing.

6Eight sizes, all cut the same way.

UK 8/10 up to UK 22/24. Not a nicely made dress at one end and a bag with sleeves at the other, which is what usually happens when a range is graded carelessly. The sleeve widens with it and the length grows with it. This is the argument I have most often and the one I am least willing to lose. Every measurement is on the chart in centimetres so you can lay it against something you already own before you decide.

Set against what else is in the shops

There is no shortage of occasion dresses at a hundred and sixty pounds in Richmond this month. I have bought plenty of them over the years, which is how I know what is wrong with most of them. Laid out side by side it looks like this.

	Most £165 occasion dresses	The Theodosia
The cloth	Flat, and it shows at this price	Uneven weave that reads from the far side of a room
The arms	Bare, or a sleeve that grips	Full three-quarter, covers and stands away
The fit	Holds you in from the second course	Straight A-line that skims and moves
Pockets	Decorative, or none at all	Real, in the side seam, phone and keys
Getting ready	Needs a necklace and a scarf to finish	Finished already, by the buttons and the cuffs

I am not willing to sell a dress that makes a woman pick between sitting comfortably and liking her reflection. That choice is the reason the Theodosia got made at all.

Why it is £52.95

We order in small quantities, which is how we have always done it, and this year both the cloth and the shipping went up on us. Neither of those went onto the ticket. The Theodosia came in at £165 and it is leaving at £52.95. Take more than one and it comes down again: 15% on two, 20% on three, 25% on four or more.

I would rather say this plainly than dress it up. There is almost nothing left in it for us at that number. A small shop sitting on stock it cannot shift is a small shop with a problem, and I would sooner see these go out the door at a figure that hurts than count them again in November. When the run is finished the price finishes with it, because we cannot buy the same cloth back at what we paid.

What eleven years behind this counter has actually taught me is that a woman who gets one thing from us that fits properly tends to come back for the next one. That is what Alison and I are gambling on by writing to you at £52.95.

In eleven years this is the one I am gladdest we made. I want it on people rather than folded in a stockroom.

What comes back to us is more or less what I have written here. The sleeve, the pockets, and not having to find anything to go with it. If any of that is what you have been after, take a look while the middle sizes are still on the shelf.

Emma, for Emma & Alison Winslow · Richmond

See the Theodosia at £52.95 →

This is a letter from one of the two sisters who run The Winslow Sisters. Prices and sizes 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.