At 62, I have finally stopped carrying my coat round all afternoon
At 62, I have finally stopped carrying my coat round all afternoon
Six things the Cassandra gets right that my big winter coat gets 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. But there is a little routine I must have done a thousand times, and I only noticed it this autumn. I put my big winter coat on to go out, I am glad of it for the ten minutes it takes to get there, and then I walk into the garden centre or the café or my daughter's kitchen and the first thing I do is take it off. And then I carry it. Over my arm, over the back of a chair, bundled on my lap, for the whole afternoon. So this is not a review. It is a woman who changed her coat and stopped carrying it, 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 Cassandra, a long hooded coat that hangs open at the front, cream on the outside with a patchwork-style print of triangles and squares in coral, teal, pink and gold, and lined inside with a soft blue fleece. 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 coat with a patchwork print on it. At 62. Read on.
Here is how it happens, and I suspect it happens to most of us. A proper winter coat gets its warmth from being thick. That is fine at the bus stop. But we do not spend our winters at the bus stop. We spend them going in and out, the shops, the café, other people's houses, and every one of those places has the heating on. So the thick coat that was right outside is wrong the moment you are through the door, and off it comes, and there you are, holding it.
I had spent years buying coats for the ten minutes outside and then carrying them round for the three hours in.
The Cassandra is the first coat I have owned that I keep on when I get there, and having worn it most days since it arrived, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The afternoon it came. Softer than I expected, and that blue lining is lovely.
Warm because of what is inside, not how thick it is
The boutique's own words for it are the warmth of a winter coat without the weight of one, and that is how it wears. The inside is lined with a soft, nubbly blue fleece, all down the front and right up into the hood, so the warmth comes from the lining rather than from bulk. By teatime my shoulders do not know I have had a coat on all day, which I could never say about the old one.
The blue fleece inside. This is the part you feel the moment you put it on.
Warm without feeling like I am wearing a duvet. My old coat used to make my shoulders ache by the afternoon.
Maureen T., BeestonIt is made to be worn open, so I do not boil the minute I get in
It hangs in two straight lines down the front and never grips at the middle, which means it goes on in a second, and it means that when I walk into a warm shop I do not feel shut in. I just carry on with my afternoon. That one thing is the whole reason I stopped taking it off.
Out the back first thing with my tea. Just thrown on over what I had on.
I wore it round the shops all afternoon and never once took it off. It is so easy just to throw on.
Gillian H., BulwellTwo proper pockets, so the handbag can stay at home
There are two pockets set into the front at the hip, and they are a proper size. My phone, my keys and my gloves go in, and for a walk round the village or a quick trip to the shop that is all I need. Hands in pockets on a cold morning is a small pleasure I had forgotten about.
The pockets sit right where your hands fall.
The pockets are a good size. I go out with just my phone and keys now.
Lynne P., HucknallThe print people actually ask about
Triangles and little squares in coral, teal, pink, mustard and deep red, scattered across a soft cream background, busiest at the shoulders and thinning out towards the hem. It looks like an old patchwork quilt somebody has been fond of for years. It is cheerful without shouting, and it is the only coat I have owned that strangers have stopped me about. Which, now I come to think of it, is another reason to keep it on.
In the wardrobe with everything else I own. You can see what I was up against.
Two women asked me where it was from in the queue at the post office. I love the colours.
Diane K., CarltonLong enough to sit down in
It comes down past the hip to about mid-thigh, so it covers my seat over a pair of jeans and stays where it should when I sit down in the car or in a café. Nothing rides up and nothing gapes at the back.
Lovely length, covers everything. I went up a size so I could wear a jumper underneath and it is just right.
Pauline S., West BridgfordHonest sizes, right up to a 4XL
It comes in UK 8/10 right up to UK 20/22, cut generously, and the boutique says plainly that if you like a thick jumper underneath you should take one size up. I did, and it sits easy without looking like I borrowed it from somebody bigger. It is nice to be told the truth about sizing for once.
Finally a coat like this in my size that is not black. Went up one as they suggest and it is perfect.
Margaret B., RadcliffeThis, against my big winter coat
You can buy a thick padded coat anywhere, and most of us have one. Mine is still in the hall cupboard. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Warm because it is thick, and heavy with it
Right at the bus stop, too warm the minute I get in
Off and over my arm all afternoon
Black or navy, like everybody else's
Zipped up to the chin
Warm from the soft fleece lining, not the bulk
Hangs open, so I keep it on indoors
Stays on, and it is the nicest thing I have on
Cream, with a patchwork-style print in coral, teal, pink and gold
Worn open, on in a second
About the price
The Cassandra is £53.95 at the moment. It was £108.00.
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 winter 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 in and out of every shop in town, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered one for my friend Sue 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 are the woman with her coat over her arm in the garden centre café, I would start here. Not for the very coldest day of the year, that is what the big coat in the cupboard is for. For all the ordinary days of going in and out, which, when you add them up, are most of the winter. Go and have a look while your size is still there.
Caroline
CASSANDRA | Bohemian Art Coat
- Patchwork-style print in coral, teal, pink and gold on cream
- Soft blue fleece lining through the body and the hood
- Roomy hood with a drawstring
- Worn open, falls to about mid-thigh
- Two front pockets at the hip
- UK 8/10 (S) to UK 20/22 (4XL), size up for a jumper underneath
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now, about half price. The middle sizes are going first.