The tee I only bought to unlock a discount has become the one I live in.

A Perth reader on the $74 top she nearly didn't bother with, and the three weeks that changed her mind.

The day it turned up. It sat on the bench until after lunch, which tells you how excited I was.

At 62, I can tell you the most useful thing I bought this spring was a top I added purely to save a few dollars.

I suspect plenty of you have done exactly the same thing, so bear with me.

A few of you will know I wrote a while back about a floral blouse from Perth Boutique, the little Australian shop my friend Lorraine got me onto. I've been back a handful of times since. They take 10 percent off when you buy two pieces, and I am constitutionally unable to walk away from that kind of offer. Ray calls it my weakness. It isn't my only one, but it's certainly the most affordable.

So one evening in October, with a dress already sitting in my cart, I scrolled about for something cheap to go with it. I landed on a tee called the Miranda, chose a dusty rose, and added it in about four seconds. No careful reading, no zooming in on the pictures. It was the shopping equivalent of grabbing a packet of mints at the checkout.

Three weeks on, I own it in three colours, and the dress I actually wanted has barely been out of the wardrobe.

Not your ordinary T-shirt

What I missed when I ordered it is the first thing other people pick up on. The Miranda doesn't look like a basic tee. It's something about the way it hangs and the way it moves. It looks like you chose it on purpose, the way one good piece can turn an ordinary outfit into a proper one.

My hairdresser commented before I'd even sat down. The girl at the chemist asked where I'd found it. And my sister, 65 and famously stingy with praise, gave me a long look and said it was "a step up for you." Coming from her, I nearly had it framed.

Then there's the hem. It's high-low, so it dips lower at the back and quietly covers the bit of you that trousers and leggings are least kind to. I hadn't realised how much I'd been wanting that. I've even worn it with my slim white jeans, which normally stay firmly in the drawer, and felt completely fine about it. Covered, but not swamped.

Some tops work with you. Most tops work against you. This one is firmly on my side.

The fit is relaxed, so it skims rather than clings. When the afternoon gets hot it doesn't stick to me, it doesn't cling to my back on the drive home, and the fabric is light and breathable enough to cope with a Perth summer, which is no small thing.

→ Read about the Miranda

And then I started counting

This is slightly embarrassing. I keep a shopping list on a notepad stuck to the fridge, and one morning I started putting a little mark on it every time I wore the rose one. By the end of week three there were more than ten marks. That afternoon I went back online and ordered it in white and in blue.

Rose, white and blue, folded and ready for the week. The tally is still on the fridge.

At Sunday lunch my daughter-in-law spotted the rose one and asked me to turn round so she could see the back. She's now put in a request for the white, which is the first fashion advice she's ever asked me for.

They wash beautifully, they're dry on the line in under an hour in our heat, and I haven't ironed one yet. I never thought I'd say this, but it's become my retirement uniform. Getting dressed in the morning now takes about thirty seconds.

A word about the price

The Miranda is $74.95 at the moment. The website says it's normally $139, and there's a spring sale on while they make room for the summer range. I'll be straight with you, as always. At full price I probably wouldn't have taken the chance, because I had no idea then how much I'd wear it. At $74.95, my only regret is not ordering two colours to begin with.

And the discount that started all this applies to the tees too. Buy two pieces and you get 10 percent off the lot, three gets you 15 percent, and four gets you 20. With two Mirandas in different colours, you've got two tops you'll actually reach for, rather than one that sits there looking hopeful.

What I'd say to you over a cuppa

If you were sitting with me on the back verandah with a cup of tea, here's what I'd tell you.

Clothes for women our age so often treat comfort as something to apologise for. Everything comfortable ends up shapeless, beige and a bit sorry for itself. The Miranda is the first tee in years that feels like an old favourite but looks like I made an effort.

I'd tell you the rose is the one I grab first, the white works with literally everything, and the blue is the one that gets the compliments. There's an orange if you're feeling brave, and a green I keep going back to look at. Sizes run from S to 3XL, and as the fit is relaxed, my usual size was spot on.

I'd also tell you that sale colours don't hang about, and that once they're gone they don't always come back. So get two, not one. Partly for the discount, but mostly because you'll end up ordering the second one anyway. I did.

Before your colour goes.

— Maggie