You pull it over your head on the first properly warm morning and the cotton lands on your shoulders weighing almost nothing.

The dress is barely two hundred grams. The maker weighs it size by size, from 189 g at XS to 225 g at XXXL, and you feel that the moment it settles: nothing clings, nothing pulls, the skirt swings clear of you when you turn. By ten in the morning the air moves straight through the fabric, because the fabric is full of holes.

Those holes are the whole point, and they are not lace. Look closely and you find a woven cotton ground with ovals punched clean through it, each one ringed in dense satin stitch, and small embroidered flowers sitting between the columns of eyelets. That is broderie anglaise, also called eyelet embroidery: the cotton is woven first, then the openwork is stitched into it. The hem stops in a scalloped border where the eyelets crowd together, and the sleeves are little flutter caps cut from the same fabric, falling over the top of your arm with that same scalloped edge.

Key Benefits

• Eyelet cotton that breathes The openwork is structural, not printed. Air passes through every eyelet, which is why the dress reads cool at noon instead of only looking cool.
• Deep V at the front, covered at the back The V drops low and open at the front. The back neckline stays high and round, with a zip down the centre back seam.
• Real pockets in the side seams One slit in each side seam, open all the way through to a bag behind. Phone in one, keys in the other, hands free.
• A line that skims rather than grips An empire seam sits just under the bust and the skirt gathers into it, then falls away in a clean A to the hem. Nothing is fitted below the chest.
• Twelve colours, seven sizes White through to black, with pink, yellow, orange, burgundy, purple, light blue, navy, light green, rose red and green in between. XS to XXXL.

Best for: hot weather when you want one thing to put on and be done with it. Holidays, garden lunches, the walk to the market, a long day where you would rather not think about your waistband. It is a short dress, landing above the knee, so choose it knowing that.

Why It Works

Most summer dresses ask you to pick a side: loose and shapeless, or shaped and stifling. This one splits the difference with a seam. The empire line under the bust gives the cloth a defined point to hang from, so the eyelet cotton falls in an A instead of hanging like a sack, and the gathers put fullness into the skirt without putting a waistband anywhere near your waist. The pockets survive because the skirt is full enough to swallow them. And the openwork does the cooling that a heavy lining would undo, which is exactly why the hem finishes in a single layer of scalloped eyelet rather than a bound edge.

Quick Product Facts: cotton eyelet embroidery, also called broderie anglaise; deep V front neckline, high round back; flutter cap sleeves with scalloped edges; empire seam with a gathered A line skirt; scalloped embroidered eyelet border below a plain hem band; one open pocket in each side seam; zip at the centre back; garment length 85 cm at XS to 91 cm at XXXL; garment weight 189 g to 225 g; twelve colours; XS to XXXL; one dress per order.

How It Fits Your Routine

Day one it is the dress you reach for when the flat is already too warm at eight in the morning. Over a swimsuit it walks to the beach and back without a second thought. Over a plain slip, or a cami and shorts, it goes to lunch, because the eyelets read as texture from two metres away and as openwork from close up.

It packs down to nothing. Two hundred grams of cotton rolls into a corner of a carry on and comes out creased the way cotton creases, which a night on a hanger in a steamy bathroom mostly sorts out. Shake it, hang it, wear it.

Wash it cool and gently. Embroidered eyelet is a lot of stitched edges and a lot of holes, and holes catch on zips and hooks in a drum, so a mesh bag or a cool hand wash is the safe route. Dry it flat or on a hanger out of direct sun, especially in the deeper colours. Warm iron on the reverse if you want the scalloped hem to sit flat again.

FAQ

Is this lace? No. The supplier sheet says lace, and the same sentence also says jacquard, which is a third thing again. What the photographs show is eyelet embroidery, or broderie anglaise: a woven cotton cloth with holes cut through it and embroidered around each one. Lace has no woven ground, it is built from thread alone. Here the cotton ground is plainly visible between every eyelet, so we are calling it what it is.

Is it lined, and can you see through it? The warehouse photograph of the yellow dress shows a plain smooth panel sitting behind the eyelet at the neckline, so the bodice is backed there, while the eyelets themselves are real openwork and the scalloped border below the hem band is a single layer. Wear a slip or a cami underneath and style the openwork as part of the look.

How short is it? Short. The maker measures 85 cm shoulder to hem at XS and 91 cm at XXXL, and on the model it lands mid thigh. The supplier sheet calls it mid length, which its own size chart contradicts, so ignore that word. This is a mini.

Do the pockets actually open? Yes. They are slits set into the side seams, and the side view on the dress form shows the opening and the pocket bag behind it. They are not topstitched decoration.