A letter from a reader

At 62, my whole wardrobe had gone as grey as the sky

Six things the Amanda gets right that my grey and navy jumpers got wrong, from a woman who is not a fashion writer.

Caroline Richards · Customer · Nottinghamshire · 5 min read

Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Caroline, I am 62, I live in Nottinghamshire, and I have never once sat down to write about something I wear. Earlier this month I opened my wardrobe on a wet Tuesday and saw it properly for the first time. Grey jumper, navy jumper, black jumper, another grey one. Every single thing in there was the colour of the sky outside, and I realised I had been dressing to match the weather for years without noticing. This is not a review. It is a woman who put a bit of sunshine back in her wardrobe, saying so.

What I found is from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is called the Amanda, a relaxed quilted hoodie with a patchwork sunburst across the front: a big golden sun near the shoulder, with rays of every colour you can think of fanning out from it. When the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.

A rainbow hoodie. At 62. Read on.

Here is how it happens, and I suspect it happens to most of us. The days get shorter and greyer, and we reach for the darker things because they feel sensible. Navy goes with everything. Grey does not show the rain. Black is smart. And slowly, without ever deciding to, we turn the colour of November. Then we wonder why we feel a bit flat by the end of the month.

I had been dressing to match the sky for so long that I had forgotten I was allowed to dress against it.

The Amanda is the first thing I have owned that feels like turning a light on in a grey room, and having worn it most days since it arrived, I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The afternoon it came, with the rain coming down outside. It lit up the whole bedroom.

1

A sun to wear on a grey morning

The front is a big golden sun near the shoulder, with patchwork rays spreading out from it in orange, red, pink, purple, blue and green, each strip with its own little print. It is quilted, so it has a lovely soft texture you want to run your hand over. On a dark morning it is the most cheerful thing in the house.

The sun up close, by the window on a wet morning. Every ray has its own little print.

★★★★★

It is like wearing sunshine. I put it on when the weather is miserable and it lifts me straight away.

Jacqueline H., Beeston

2

It cheers other people up too

This is the part I did not expect. At the Saturday market three women stopped me to ask about it, and one said it had cheered her up just to look at it. The lady in the post office said the same. It is lovely to be the bright thing in somebody's grey day.

Tea by the window while it rained. The sun stays out on the front.

★★★★★

Everyone smiles when I wear it. On a wet Monday in November that is worth every penny.

Beverley K., Hucknall

3

It goes with what I already own

Because every colour is in it, it goes with all those navy and grey things I already had. I wear it with jeans most days, and with my grey trousers when I want to look a little smarter. It turned out my dull wardrobe just needed one bright thing on top.

With my everyday jeans. All the old navy and grey suddenly has a job to do.

★★★★★

Goes with everything because it has every colour in it. I wear it with jeans and with black trousers.

Lynda P., Arnold

4

A relaxed, easy shape

It is a relaxed fit, so it skims rather than clings, with long sleeves and room to move. It is the sort of thing you put on in the morning and forget about, except that everyone else notices it. It is easy in a way I did not expect something so bright to be.

On the wardrobe door, ready for the morning. A relaxed shape with long sleeves.

★★★★☆

Lovely relaxed fit, not tight anywhere. I went for my usual size and it is perfect.

Kathleen R., Mapperley

This, against my grey and navy jumpers

Most of us have a wardrobe that quietly turned the colour of the weather. I know, because mine did. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

The Amanda is £29.95 at the moment. It was £60.00.

I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that with the autumn sale on the middle sizes are going first, and once the autumn stock has gone it can be a long wait for it to come back. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with a thing, and after weeks of wearing it, I have not found it.

And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered a second one. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.

If your wardrobe has gone as grey as the sky, I would start here. Not because there is anything wrong with navy, but because the grey months are long, and you are allowed a bit of sunshine to wear through them. Go and have a look while your size is still there.

Caroline

AMANDA | Colourful Quilted Hoodie

★★★★☆ 4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

£60.00 £29.95

• Patchwork sunburst in every colour
• Quilted, with a soft texture
• Drawstring hood in the same patchwork
• Relaxed fit with long sleeves
• Lovely with jeans or casual trousers
• UK 4/6 (2XS) to UK 22/24 (5XL)
• Free UK delivery and 30 day returns

See the Amanda

The autumn sale is on now, half price. The middle sizes are going first.