At 62, I had given up on pattern because it always landed right across my middle
At 62, I had given up on pattern because it always landed right across my middle
Six things the Autumn sweater gets right that every printed top I tried 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. I have always loved a bit of pattern. But every printed top I tried on in the last ten years did the same thing. The biggest, boldest part of the print sat right across my tummy and my bust, which are the two places I would rather nobody's eye went first. So I gave up on pattern and went back to plain. This is not a review. It is a woman who found a pattern that knows where to sit, 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 Autumn, a soft cream V-neck jumper with orange and amber maple leaves drifting over one shoulder, down the sleeves and up from the hem, and a front that is left completely plain. 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 jumper with leaves on it. At 62. Read on.
Here is how it happens, and I suspect it happens to most of us. Most prints are made as one big all-over pattern, and the garment is simply cut out of it. Nobody decides where the busiest bit goes. It just lands wherever it lands, and on most of us, that is the middle. So we decide pattern is not for us any more, when really it was only the placement that was wrong.
I had not gone off pattern. I had gone off pattern sitting on the exact part of me I spend my life trying to play down.
The Autumn is the first patterned jumper I have owned that puts the leaves where I would have put them myself, and having worn it most days since it arrived, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The afternoon it came. The leaves round the edges, and the front left alone.
The front is left plain
The whole of the front, chest and middle is soft plain cream. The boutique says the plain front keeps it calm and grown-up, and that is exactly how it wears. Nothing busy sits across the parts I am careful about. It looks like a lovely plain jumper from the front, until you see the edges.
On the wardrobe door. You can see how the leaves keep to the edges.
Love that the front is plain. I always avoid prints for that reason, but this one is so clever.
Sylvia M., BeestonThe leaves sit at the edges
The maple leaves gather over one shoulder, trail down the sleeves to the cuff, and drift up from one side of the hem. So the colour is at my shoulders and my arms, which draws the eye out and up, and away from the middle. I do not know whether that was the idea, but it is certainly the effect, and I feel very at home in it.
Out in the park on a bright October morning. The colour is all on the shoulder and sleeves.
The leaves on the sleeves are beautiful. It is pretty without being too much.
Lorraine K., ArnoldProper October colours
The leaves are the colours you actually see on the pavement this month: orange, amber, a bit of gold and a deep rust, each with its little veins showing. On the soft cream they look warm and cheerful, and on a grey morning they are a little bit of sunshine.
The leaves at the hem, by the window. You can see the veins in each one.
The colours are gorgeous, just like real autumn leaves. Cheers me up every time I put it on.
Hilda B., HucknallA soft V-neck
The neckline is a gentle V with a neat ribbed edge. It sits nicely on its own, it looks lovely with a necklace, and on a cooler day I wear a plain vest top underneath. It is never tight at the neck, which matters to me more than it probably should.
Nice V-neck, not too low. I wear it with a cream vest underneath and it looks lovely.
Patricia D., MapperleyRelaxed, and easy with anything
It is a fine, soft knit, loose through the body with a gently curved hem that sits nicely over the top of my jeans. I have worn it with jeans, with my white trousers on a dry day, and with a plain grey skirt for lunch. It does not cling anywhere and it never looks like I am trying too hard.
Laid out for the day. Jeans, the Autumn and my tan boots, and that is me done.
So soft and easy to wear. Loose without being shapeless, and it goes with all my jeans.
Joan F., Long EatonHonest sizes, right up to a 4XL
It comes in UK 8/10 right up to UK 20/22. I took my usual size and it sits relaxed and roomy, which is how I like a jumper. It is nice to find something seasonal and cheerful that is cut for a woman and not a girl.
My usual size fits lovely and loose. So pleased to find something pretty in my size.
Mavis R., BinghamThis, against the printed tops I had given up on
Most of us have a printed top or two at the back of the wardrobe that we never quite feel right in. I know, because I had a whole drawer. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Pattern cut from one big all-over print
The busiest part across my middle
Worn once, then back to plain
Colours that went with nothing
The wrong kind of attention
Leaves placed at the edges
A plain cream front
Worn most days since it arrived
Warm October colours on soft cream
A soft V-neck and a relaxed fit
About the price
The Autumn is £31.95 at the moment. It was £64.00.
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 this batch 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 one for my sister as well. 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 you gave up on pattern because it always seemed to land in the wrong place, I would start here. Not because you need to be braver, but because the pattern was never the problem. Where it sat was. Go and have a look while your size is still there.
Caroline
AUTUMN | Maple Leaf V-Neck Sweater
- Soft cream fine knit
- Maple leaves over the shoulder, sleeves and hem
- A plain front, nothing busy across the middle
- Soft V-neck with a ribbed edge
- Relaxed fit with a gently curved hem
- UK 8/10 (S) to UK 20/22 (4XL)
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now, half price. The middle sizes are going first.