A Letter From Michelle — The Lenorah
A Letter From Michelle
In the photographs it will look like a gown. You will know it is pants.
On the extra hour spent hunting for something to put over your arms, why a formal dress makes you choose between looking right and sitting down, the six things I would not compromise on, and why the Lenorah is $69.95.
There is a particular dread that arrives with a save-the-date on the refrigerator, and it is not about the wedding.
It is that you will find something beautiful and then spend another hour hunting for something to put over your arms. That you will be fitted into it at four o’clock and counting the minutes by nine. That you will look at the photographs afterward and see your mother.
So look at the legs. They are chiffon, and each one is cut as wide as half a skirt — so standing still you read as a gown, and the moment you move you are in pants.
Six things I would not compromise on.
The leg is cut as wide as a skirt
Full enough to fall like half a skirt each, and cut in chiffon rather than a suiting cloth, so the whole thing moves the way a long dress moves instead of hanging in two columns. That is the entire illusion. Still, you read as a gown. Walking, sitting, getting out of a car, you are in pants, and everything that makes a dress difficult is simply not there.
“I chose the navy for my grandson’s wedding. The wide legs almost look like a long evening dress, but I much prefer wearing pants. Just lovely.”
Margaret H., CharlottesvilleThe sleeves are the shawl, and they are sewn on
The chiffon falls from the shoulder in a cape across the upper arm and down past the elbow. It is the coverage you would otherwise be hunting a shawl for, except it is attached, it cannot slide off the back of a chair, and nobody has to hold it. And it is chiffon on purpose: it softens the arm rather than hiding it, which is the difference between a sleeve and a cover-up.
“Those sleeves are what sold me. At 67, I don’t particularly like showing my upper arms anymore. The chiffon gives me coverage without looking old-fashioned.”
Carolyn B., AshevilleA ruffle runs down the outside of each leg
From the hip to the floor, gathered so it ripples instead of lying flat. Standing in a photograph it reads as a seam of movement down each side, which is what keeps a plain color from looking plain. Walking, it opens and closes. It is the detail that does most of the work of making this look like it cost what it used to cost.
“The ruffles down the sides are such a pretty detail. They move when you walk and make the whole outfit look a little more special.”
Judith R., BellinghamThe waist is the only part that is fitted
The top blouses softly above it and falls loose over the stomach and the hip, and the legs take over from there. So there is nothing pulling across your middle while you sit through a ceremony, a dinner and the speeches after it. You get the shape at the waist, where you want it, and nothing gripping anywhere you do not.
“I usually dread shopping for something formal. This is a nice change from dresses, and I like that the waist is defined without the whole outfit being fitted. The navy is a beautiful shade.”
Elaine K., StauntonThree colors, and all three are deep ones
Blue, Green and Navy. Every one of them photographs properly in a church and again under the lights afterward, which is more than pale colors manage. And because the sleeve is sheer and the body is not, each color arrives twice in the same outfit — deeper through the middle, lighter where the light comes through the chiffon.
“Wore the royal blue to our 40th anniversary dinner. My husband said I looked beautiful, which made my evening. 😊”
Donna M., GreenvilleSix sizes, what you add, and the one thing I would rather say here
XS through 2XL, all at one price, and the waist is the one measurement that has to be right. Most women add very little to it, because the outfit has already done the work. And I would rather tell you here than let you find it at the dropdown: the Lenorah stops at 2XL. Several of our knits go further. This one does not.
“I bought the green for a family wedding. Added gold sandals, pearl earrings and a little champagne-colored purse. Didn’t need much else!”
Patricia W., LancasterThe Lenorah, against what else $70 buys
| Most $70 occasion outfits | The Lenorah | |
|---|---|---|
| Your arms | Sleeveless, then an hour hunting a shawl | Cape sleeves in the same chiffon, sewn on and never sliding |
| The shape | Two plain legs, unmistakably pants | Legs cut as wide as a skirt, so standing still it reads as a gown |
| The middle | Fitted, and you know it by the speeches | Only the waist is fitted; everything else falls loose |
| Sitting down | Something to be managed all evening | Nothing pulls, because nothing below the waist is fitted |
| The decision | Find a dress, then find pieces to go with it | Two matched pieces that arrive already agreeing with each other |
| Sizing | Stops at XL, if you are lucky | XS through 2XL, every size at the same price |
Why we are clearing them out now
The Lenorah was $229.95, and that number was for two matched chiffon pieces — a blouson top with a chiffon cape falling from the shoulder, and a wide leg carrying a gathered cascade from hip to floor down each outer edge. Chiffon in that quantity is mostly what you are paying for, and it is not a cheap cloth to cut well. But the store turns twenty this year, and my daughters Julie and Amy are both at the counter most days now, which is not something I let myself count on in 2006. We wanted to mark it by handing something back to the women who kept those doors open, so it is going out at a little under a third of what it was.
And the honest reasoning. You will wear this three or four times in your life, and every one of those days will be photographed and kept. That is not a reason to spend $229.95. It is a very good reason not to spend the afternoon of your grandson’s wedding thinking about your sleeves.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,369+ reviews
$229.95$69.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 70%
- Two matched chiffon pieces, bought as one outfit
- Cape sleeves over the upper arm, past the elbow
- Wide legs cut as full as a skirt
- A gathered ruffle hip to floor down each outer leg
- A blouson top, loose over the stomach and hip
- A defined waist, and nothing else fitted
- Blue, Green and Navy
- Sizes XS through 2XL, every size the same price
- The Lenorah stops at 2XL
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every color and every size the same price · while sizes last
One more thing, and then I will let you go.
Go and put on the last thing you wore to a wedding. Then sit down in a dining chair, the way you would for a long dinner, and give it a minute.
If you adjusted something, you have just found out why you remember that day as long rather than lovely. It was never you.
Do the same with the Lenorah the day the box arrives. If you have to adjust anything, send it back within thirty days and we will refund you.
Go and pick your color.
With love and gratitude,
— Michelle · The Hayes Family Hamptons
PICK YOUR COLOR — $69.95 →This is a personal letter from Michelle Hayes, co-founder of The Hayes Family Hamptons. Customer reviews are quoted as written. · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.