The one dress I have not stopped reaching for.

On the linen-cotton dress that skims instead of clings, breathes on a hot afternoon, and — yes — has deep, real pockets. The dress I now put on without thinking.

By Carol Hadley · Fairhope, AlabamaPosted September 2026 · 5 min read

I am 65 years old, and for most of my life a summer dress was a decision between two bad options. The pretty ones clung — at the stomach, at the hips, at every place I would rather they didn't. The comfortable ones were shapeless tents that made me look like I had given up.

I tried linen that creased into a rag by ten in the morning. I tried "flowy" polyester that stuck to my back in the car. I tried belts, and slips, and one memorable wrap dress that came undone at a christening. Nothing was both pretty and easy. Nothing was both.

Then, after church one Sunday in June, a woman I only half knew stopped me in the parking lot. She was wearing a white dress with red flowers climbing up from the hem, her hands in the pockets, looking cooler than anyone had a right to. I asked her where it came from. She laughed and said it was ours.

We are a small family shop here in Fairhope, Alabama, running since 1984. The summer dress is called the Matilda, and these are the handful of things we refused to compromise on.

1.A cut that skims, never clings

We started with the shape. The Matilda is a relaxed A-line with soft pleats under the bust, so it falls straight from the chest and never touches the middle. There is nothing to cinch, nothing to pull down, nothing to check in a shop window. You put it on, and it does the work.

2.A fabric that actually breathes

We chose a linen-cotton blend, not pure linen and not polyester. It has the cool, dry feel of linen against your skin on a ninety-degree afternoon, with enough cotton in it that it holds its shape and does not turn into a crumpled rag by lunchtime. You can wear it from the market to dinner and it still looks like a dress.

3.And yes — it has pockets. Deep ones.

We insisted on pockets, and not the shallow little pretend ones. These are set into the side seams and go down deep enough for a phone, a set of keys and your reading glasses without a single bulge showing. Half the women who write to us mention the pockets first. We understand completely.

4.An inner tie that is your choice

We put a hidden tie on the inside of the waist. Tie it and the dress gathers softly into a shape; leave it loose and it falls straight and easy. Nobody can see it either way. It means one dress does the work of two — the dress you wear to a lunch, and the dress you wear to the garden.

5.A print that gets noticed — for the right reasons

We kept the print to the hem and the sleeves — stylised red flowers on fine black stems, placed rather than scattered, so the eye goes down and out instead of straight to the middle. It reads as clean white from a distance and as something special up close. It comes in the white with red blooms, and in blush.

6.It fits the body you have

We size the Matilda true, from S to 5XL, and cut every size generous on purpose. Take your usual size; if you like more room, go up one, the shape allows it. And if it is not right when it arrives, send it back within thirty days for a full refund.

The usual summer dress vs. the Matilda

Why we're clearing it now

We priced the Matilda at $239.95 when it launched. But for America's 250th Anniversary, we wanted to give something back to the women who keep our doors open — so every summer dress is going out at a fraction of that.

Every order leaves Fairhope folded in a kraft paper mailer with a handwritten note from one of us tucked on top. It is a small thing. We have found the small things are the ones people remember.

I do not usually write things like this. But the first afternoon I wore the Matilda, I walked the length of the farmers' market with my hands in my pockets and did not think about my body once. Not once. It felt like getting a piece of myself back.

If that sounds like you, I hope you get yours before it clears.

— Carol Hadley · Fairhope, AL

The Hadley Family is a small family-run shop. Prices and availability shown are current at the time of writing.