Sloane, on the midi dress she makes for women who quietly stopped dressing for themselves
A Letter From Sloane · Founder of Sloane & Pearl
Brooklyn · August 2026
Sloane, on the midi dress she makes for women who quietly stopped dressing for themselves
You haven't given up on getting dressed. You gave up on clothes that still feel like you.
Hi. Sloane here, in our little Brooklyn studio. I started Sloane & Pearl in 2002 because the women I knew, my friends, my sisters, my customers, were quietly settling. Not for less. Just for easier. And somewhere along the way, getting dressed stopped being the small pleasure it used to be. The Cristina is the dress I built for the woman I kept seeing in my notes.
She is roughly where you are, I think. Forty-five, fifty-five, sixty-five. She still cares how she looks in a photo. She just no longer trusts a tag. So she reaches for the same three things, the ones that don't embarrass her, and she stops looking.
I am not here to fix her. I am here to hand her back a dress that feels like her, the woman she is now, not the woman she was ten years ago. That is all a piece of clothing can do, and it is enough.
A cloth that actually breathes
I refused a poly blend that photographs glossy on a hanger and clings by lunch. The Cristina is a lightweight, slightly stretchy weave that moves with you and stays cool in July. On a sweltering Saturday at my niece's graduation barbecue, I forgot to check myself in the bathroom mirror on the way out. That has not happened to me in years.
"I wore it to an outdoor bridal shower in August and never once thought about the fabric. I just enjoyed the afternoon."
A waist that cinches without squeezing
I insisted on a real waist seam, not a stretched empire line that pulls across the chest. It nips you in where you are smallest and then flows softly over the midsection, no cling, no read-through. A woman at a Sunday dinner in Brooklyn reached across the table and said, 'Whatever you are wearing, I want one.' I nearly cried into the bread basket.
"It skims me exactly right. I am not holding my stomach all night."
Pleats that fall instead of flare
Most A-line dresses swing too wide at the hem and read like a tent. I asked for subtle front pleats that drop cleanly, so the line stays elegant and you can walk, sit, climb porch steps without a fuss. At a neighbor's backyard birthday, my husband asked, on the drive home, if I had bought something new. I had not told him.
"It moves like a nicer dress than it is. My sister thought I had spent three times what I did."
Pockets you forget are there
I demanded discreet side pockets, deep enough for a phone and a lipstick, sewn so the line of the skirt does not break. It sounds small. After a Saturday of school pickup, errands, a coffee with a friend, and a walk in the park, my hands had been in them the whole day. I had stopped carrying a clutch to feel dressed up.
"The pockets sealed it. I cannot go back to a dress without them now."
A neckline that does not try
I cut a soft, rounded neckline that flatters without plunging, so you can wear it to a christening and to a weeknight dinner out and never feel under- or overdressed. I wore mine to a school concert last spring with flat sandals, and the woman next to me asked where I had bought it before the second song.
"I never feel like I am trying too hard in it. That is the part I love."
A hem you can wear twice
I landed on a true midi, just below the knee, so it reads dressy enough for a summer wedding with a low heel and relaxed enough for Sunday brunch with flat sandals. I have worn mine to both in the same month, which is the whole point.
"I have already worn it to a wedding and to a backyard lunch. It has earned its hanger."
The Cristina, against the department-store occasion dresses you have been buying
Stiff fabric that wrinkles before you arrive
A cut that either clings or swings wide
A label price that quietly stings
Breathable, slightly stretchy weave
A cinched waist that skims the midsection
Honest clearance pricing, no fanfare
I forgot to check myself in the bathroom mirror on the way out. That has not happened to me in years.
Why it is priced the way it is
Cristina is on our Summer Sale floor because the season turned and we need the room. That is the honest version. There is no countdown timer on this page. The dress is the same dress we have been making all year, in the same Brooklyn studio, and it is priced to move so we can keep the shelves honest.
You have probably spent closer to three times this on a department-store occasion dress that promised the same things on the hanger and let you down by dessert. The Cristina, at $39.95 against the usual $98, is a quieter kind of value. It is the price of a sensible lunch for two, for a dress you will reach for again.
I untagged myself from photos for years. I did not untag myself from the ones from my daughter's engagement party in this dress. First time in a long time I left the album alone.
What our customers tell us, in their own words.
Sloane & Pearl is still here, twenty-four years on, in a walk-up in Brooklyn, because of women like you who quietly keep us in business. We are a small studio. We answer our own phones. We pack the orders ourselves.
If a piece of mine earns a hanger in your closet, that is the whole job, and I am grateful for it. If it does not, the 31-day money-back promise is there, no story required.
We carry a 4.8-star rating across 847 reviews, which is the only number I will ever brag about, and only because the women who wrote them did the hard part.
A small note before you go
- Cristina Tummy-Control Midi Dress, currently $39.95 on the Summer Sale floor
- Cut in a breathable, slightly stretchy weave with a cinched waist and true midi hem
- Hidden side pockets, soft rounded neckline, subtle front pleats
- Covered by our 31-day money-back promise, no questions, no restocking fuss
- Sizes are limited by what is left on the Summer Sale rack
The Cristina, against the department-store occasion dresses you have been buying, at roughly a third of what you usually spend.
Check your size on the Summer Sale rackAbout the writer. Sloane founded Sloane & Pearl in Brooklyn in 2002 after years of watching the women in her life settle for clothes that no longer felt like theirs. She still runs the studio, still answers her own email, and still personally approves every pattern that goes into production.