Splits59 Ella Women’s Airweight Dress
About Rijswijk
This town sits directly against The Hague, on the corridor toward Delft, and has been pulled into the same urban edge rather than remaining a separate market town. Its name is attached to the Treaty of Ryswick, signed in 1697 at Huis ter Nieuwburg, which ended the Nine Years’ War between France and a European coalition.
THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
The Ella is a tennis dress cut in one piece in Splits59’s Airweight fabric, the house’s lightest performance knit.
It is sold as a complete outfit rather than as a top and a skirt, so there is nothing to match and nothing to keep tucked.
The fabric is 81% nylon and 19% spandex, which is a high nylon content for the category and is what gives the hand its softness. Nylon also carries moisture along the fibre rather than absorbing it into the core, so the knit wicks and dries quickly instead of holding sweat against the skin. Flatlock seams lie flush so the edges do not chafe under a strap or at the underarm.
Two structures are built in. A shelf bra provides support without a separate garment underneath, and built-in shorts sit under the mini-length skirt — with a pocket in the short, so a ball or a phone is carried without breaking the line of the dress. Contrast side stripes run down the body.
Rijswijk sits in the coastal belt of the Randstad, close to the North Sea, where the wind is near-constant and the air is damp for most of the year.
A light, fast-drying knit is doing steady work there rather than occasional work.
Specifications
| Type | One-piece tennis dress, mini length |
|---|---|
| Fabric | Airweight, 81% nylon / 19% spandex |
| Support | Built-in shelf bra |
| Lining | Built-in shorts with pocket |
| Seams | Flatlock |
| Detail | Contrast side stripes |
| Colour | Yellow |
Airweight is the lightest of the Splits59 performance fabrics, which is why this dress sits in the warm-weather half of the range.
LET Splits59 Ella Women’s Airweight Dress SHOW YOU Rijswijk
Dress: Right. Okay. The obelisk. Treaty of Rijswijk, 20 September 1697, France and the Grand Alliance, end of the Nine Years' War — and here is the bit that had me awake: it stands on the site of Huis ter Nieuburch, the palace where they actually signed it, built between 1630 and 1634 for Frederik Hendrik of Orange and Amalia van Solms-Braunfels, big French-style garden, the works. The palace fell into neglect and was demolished in 1790. Then between 1792 and 1794 they raised this out of materials salvaged from it. The building became its own monument. Sorry — the arms of the signatory powers are carved on the four sides. That's where I was going.
Dress: Have you noticed the tower is inside the church? Not in front of it. Inside it — because during a later enlargement they built the church out around the tower, so the thing that used to stand ahead of the building now grows out of its roof. I have been turning that over since about two in the morning and I am not finished. Anyway: Protestant church on the Herenstraat, one of the oldest buildings in Rijswijk, present structure fifteenth century, parts of it going back to the thirteenth. Bells from 1681. Still in use, services on Sundays, and I genuinely could not tell you what day it is. Bells from 1681, though.
Dress: Those two wings are what's left of the castle the knight Jan Ruygrock rebuilt in 1448. Rebuilt — which means there was an earlier one, and that is a thread I lost around three and have just found again. The lake was dug about a century ago, meaning somebody stood in 23 hectares of park and thought: water, there, that's what's missing. Since 2006 the whole place is protected as a Historic Country Estate complex, park and house and dovecote together as one object, which I find weirdly moving at this hour. It survives from Rijswijk's estate zone, the belt of country seats wealthy Hollanders laid out between Delft and The Hague.
Dress: Built in 1793. The poet Hendrik Tollens lived here from 1846 until 1856 — ten years, which is nothing, and yet the house is called the Tollenshuis after him and not after whoever paid to put it up. Ten years and you get the building named after you. That is exactly the kind of thing I lie there thinking about. Since 1957 it has housed Museum Rijswijk, and the collections and exhibitions concentrate on paper and textile art and on the heritage of the town. Paper and textile. Two materials that do not last, kept safe in a house that did. There. That's the thought. I'll stop.
Jackson Phillips here. Owner of TTT. We are working hard every day to bring you the most useful product reviews in the business. Our goal is putting the right product in every hand. If you have time, shoot me an email at jacksonphillips@thetennistactician.com and tell me exactly what you think of your purchase. The more feedback we get, the better we can serve. Thank you for your patronage. And Burn, Laugh, and Learn.