A Letter From a Reader: Sleeveless Again, at Sixty-Two

I'd Given Up On Sleeveless Dresses. Then I Wore One To A Wedding And Didn't Reach For A Cardigan Once.

A note from a reader who spent years covering her arms and her middle, and the small British boutique that made her stop.

By Maggie Ellison • Shropshire, England

Posted 26 June 2026 • 6 min read

I am 62 years old, and until this summer I had quietly given up on sleeveless dresses altogether. Between my arms and my middle, there always seemed to be something that needed covering — so I would reach for a cardigan before I had even left the house, and keep it on all day, even in the heat.

That was the rule I had made for myself, without ever quite saying it out loud. Sleeveless was for other women. Younger women. I would see a lovely summer dress in a shop window and walk straight past it, because I already knew the two things it would do to me.

What I'd been telling myself

I think a great many women my age have made the same quiet rule. You do not decide it all at once. You just notice, one summer, that you have started taking a cardigan “just in case” to every lunch and every christening and every warm afternoon in the garden — and that you never once take it off.

I had a drawer of them. Cardigans bought for the sole purpose of covering my arms at a dinner. I had told myself this was simply what a sensible woman my age did in the summer. I had not told my husband Tom, or my sister, or anyone, that I had not worn a sleeveless thing in public in the better part of a decade.

The dress a friend talked me into

It was my friend Jean who talked me into buying one, for her daughter's summer wedding. She had found a small British boutique called Beatrice & Rose, and she would not let it go until I ordered the dress she had her eye on for me. It is called the Carmina.

I very nearly packed a cardigan for the wedding “just in case”. I am so glad I did not.

The Carmina

It is a watercolour-floral, sleeveless, wrap-waist midi. The wrap ties softly at the middle, so it gives you a waist without gripping it, and the skirt skims cool and easy down to a flattering midi length. On a warm day it is genuinely the coolest thing I own — no clinging, no sticking, no tugging it away from my back.

The watercolour print is soft and pretty rather than loud — the sort that makes people say you look lovely without quite knowing why. And it is cut for a real woman, not a teenager. I had worried, ordering something sleeveless, that I would spend the whole day thinking about my arms. I did not think about them once.

I read a good many of the reviews afterwards, and they are full of women saying exactly what I would.

“The first sleeveless dress I have felt comfortable in for years.”

What happened at the wedding

I did not reach for a cardigan once. Not once, the whole day, and it was a warm one.

Two people asked me where the dress was from before we had even sat down for the meal. Jean caught my eye across the marquee and gave me a little nod, the sort that says I told you so, and she had.

At the wedding, bare arms and all. I did not think about them once.

I have since worn it far more than a wedding dress has any right to be worn — to lunches, to the garden, to nothing in particular on a warm Tuesday. It has quietly become the thing I reach for when it is hot and I still want to look like myself.

What I'd tell you if we were friends

If you and I were sat on my patio with a cup of tea, and you had asked me whether you should order one, this is what I would say.

I would tell you that there is, somewhere in your house right now, a drawer of cardigans you keep for the sole purpose of covering your arms. I would tell you that you do not have to do that.

I would tell you that the Carmina is in the anniversary sale — £39.95, down from £99.88 — in sizes from a UK 8 to a 22, and that the popular ones are already thinning out.

If you have been avoiding sleeveless for longer than you would like to admit, this is the one I would start with. Have a look before the warm weather is gone.

— Maggie

This is a personal account from a customer of Beatrice & Rose. Maggie was not paid to write it. She did receive the dress she ordered.