A PERSONAL LETTER FROM FLORENCE · MOTHER & FOUNDER

I thought May and I were opening a boutique. What we really built was a life.

On the daughter beside me, the women who became part of our story, and why I still want another summer with Florence & May.

Florence · Founder of Florence & May

Melbourne · Spring 2026 · A personal letter

Two names. One family. A story we still want to keep writing.

Sometimes I look at the name Florence & May and forget, for a moment, that other people see the name of a boutique. I see my daughter’s name beside mine.

Fourteen years ago, May and I opened our little Melbourne boutique with a hope that felt very simple: that a woman could walk through our doors and find something that made her feel beautiful, comfortable and completely herself.

I don’t think either of us understood how much of our lives would become part of it. When you build something with your daughter, the work and the love are difficult to separate. Her name is there in every chapter. So is mine.

This has been our hardest year. I have already told you that we are fighting to keep Florence & May going. What is harder to explain is what that means when the person beside you is your child, and the thing you might lose holds fourteen years of your life together.

I am not ready for Florence & May to become somewhere we used to know.

That is why I wanted to write this letter myself. And why, of all the dresses in our Revival, Marianne feels like such a lovely way to tell you what I still believe in.

Before it was a boutique, it was us.

Before there were rails to fill or a name above a door, there was a mother and a daughter who wanted to make something together. We opened in 2012 with the idea that women deserved to feel seen in the clothes they wore. Fourteen years later, that idea still feels personal to me. The boutique has changed, the seasons have changed, and our lives have moved along with them. But I still see those two names together and feel the same thing: how lucky I have been to build part of my life beside my daughter.

An imagined early chapter of Florence & May, recreated to illustrate our beginnings.

The thought that hurts is losing our everyday.

It is easy to describe a boutique as a business. There are prices, orders and practical decisions, and of course those things matter. But they are not what I think about when I imagine the doors no longer opening. I think about the ordinary privilege of having something to build with May. About still having another season to choose for. About the women who have made space for our pieces in their lives. I want more of that ordinary life. I want our story to have a next chapter, while we still have the chance to write one.

A quiet moment with Florence, away from the boutique.

You deserve to recognise the woman in the mirror.

I have never believed that growing older should mean quietly disappearing from your own wardrobe. You do not stop loving a beautiful print. You do not stop wanting to feel lovely when you meet a friend or sit down with your family. You simply want the dress to understand your life a little better: room to move, a sleeve that feels comfortable, a shape that lets you relax. That is the woman I have always chosen for. A woman with her own taste, her own stories and every right to feel like herself.

Florence. A woman, a mother, and a name beside her daughter’s.

Marianne carries the feeling we opened our doors for.

The generous cream flowers on that soft indigo ground are the first thing you see. What I love is the feeling that comes after: you do not need to work out an entire outfit. The dress has already brought its own character. Its light weave falls softly, the V-neck opens gently around the face, and the three-quarter sleeves give comfortable coverage. Marianne is a little piece of what May and I wanted Florence & May to be from the beginning: something lovely that makes the woman wearing it feel at ease.

Marianne, in the garden. A dress to feel lovely in, on an ordinary day.

Because the loveliest days are often ordinary ones.

A dress does not have to wait for an important occasion to earn a place in your life. There is a coffee with someone you love. A walk through the market. Lunch that lasts longer than you meant it to. Marianne has deep side pockets, a relaxed midi shape and sleeves that let you get on with the day. Those are practical things, but care often lives in practical things. I want you to put it on, feel comfortable, and spend the afternoon thinking about the person beside you.

The sleeves, the soft drape, the pockets. The small details are part of the care.

I still want a tomorrow with May beside me.

When I ask you to be part of our Revival, this is what I mean. I would like to keep having this ordinary, precious thing: my daughter beside me, something we care about to keep building, and women finding a little piece of themselves in what we choose. I want you to love Marianne for the way it makes you feel. And I hope you also know what it means to the story on the other side of the screen. It helps us keep turning towards tomorrow, together.

Florence and May. Still looking towards the next chapter together.

Find Marianne in your size →

Marianne · $69.95 AUD · Free Australia-wide delivery · 30-day money-back guarantee

A few practical things, because care lives there too

I have told you what Marianne means to me. These are the details that help it become a dress you will actually reach for.

THE FEELING I CHOOSE FOR

✓ A relaxed shape, with room to move

✓ Lightweight weave that falls softly

✓ Three-quarter sleeves for gentle coverage

✓ A soft V-neckline

✓ Deep side pockets for everyday essentials

A PLACE IN YOUR EVERYDAY

✓ Cream botanical flowers on muted indigo

✓ Easy midi length

✓ Wear with flat sandals and a woven bag

✓ Add simple jewellery for lunch or an evening out

✓ AU sizes 8–22 (S–5XL)

Let this be our Revival. There is still a story I want to keep writing.

Why Marianne is $69.95 in our Revival

Marianne is usually $189.90. In our Revival, it is $69.95 AUD. These are prices we have never offered before, because this is the year we are fighting to keep our little boutique going.

If you find more than one piece you love, the Revival savings grow with your order: 10% off 2 pieces, 15% off 3, and 20% off 4 or more, applied automatically at checkout. You can mix Marianne with other pieces in the boutique.

It comes with free Australia-wide delivery and our 30-day money-back guarantee. Please take a moment with the size guide on the product page before you choose. More than anything, I want the dress that reaches you to be one you feel happy wearing.

$69.95

Revival price · AUD

14

Years of Florence & May

8–22

AU sizes · S–5XL

30

Day money-back guarantee

If Marianne becomes the dress you reach for on a Tuesday morning, or the one you wear for a long lunch with your daughter, I hope a little part of our story finds a home in yours.

That would mean more to me than I can put into a product description. Thank you for reading, for being here, and for giving two names above a boutique door a place in your day.

With love, and with hope,

Florence

P.S. Marianne is available in AU sizes 8–22. You will find the size guide beside the size options on the product page, so you can choose with care.

Marianne | Floral Boho Midi Dress

$189.90 $69.95 AUD

✓ Cream botanical flowers on soft indigo

✓ V-neck and three-quarter sleeves

✓ Relaxed midi silhouette

✓ Deep side pockets

✓ AU sizes 8–22 (S–5XL)

✓ Free Australia-wide delivery & 30-day money-back guarantee

Revival bundle: 10% off 2 · 15% off 3 · 20% off 4+

Find Marianne in your size →

About the writer. Florence opened Florence & May in Melbourne with her daughter May in 2012. She still chooses the pieces for the boutique.

Photographs created to illustrate the Florence & May story. The early-years scene is a recreation.
Find Marianne in your size →