At 62, I stopped hiding from the camera
At 62, I stopped hiding from the camera
Six things the Christabel gets right that everyday tops get 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 a blouse in my life. What I had was a habit. Somewhere in the last few years I became the woman who takes the photographs at every family do, and I did not fall into that by accident. I volunteered. I would pick the camera up early and stay behind it, because that way I was not in the picture. So this is not a review. It is a woman who found the one top she is happy to be photographed in, saying why.
The one I am writing about is called the Christabel, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is a light, loose blouse in a deep green with a big black and white pattern running all through 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 patterned blouse. At 62. I had spent years telling myself that a print that bold would only draw the eye to the bits I would rather nobody looked at. I put it on to try it, fully expecting to take it straight back off. Read on.
Here is what a lifetime of plain tops taught me. There are two piles in the wardrobe. There is the safe pile, the plain navy and the plain black, the ones that never look wrong and never look like anything either, and in a photograph they come out as a flat dark shape with a tired face above it. And there is the other pile, the nice things, kept for best, worn twice a year. Nothing in either pile was any use on an ordinary Saturday when somebody pointed a phone at me. I had quietly decided the problem was my face, and it was not. It was that I was wearing nothing.
And I will tell you why I am writing this now, in September, rather than in the spring. Because the photographs are about to start. From here to the new year it is one thing after another. The birthdays that all seem to fall in October in our family, the anniversary lunch, the works do my husband drags me to, and then the whole of Christmas with everybody's phone out. Summer you can dodge. Autumn and winter you cannot, because it is all indoors and somebody is always taking a picture.
I was never unhappy with how I looked in the mirror. I was unhappy with how I looked in photographs. Those are two different problems, and only one of them can be fixed by a blouse.
The Christabel is the first top I have owned that I am genuinely pleased to be caught in, and having worn mine half to death since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. Far more of a statement than I expected, and far softer too.
THE PATTERN DOES ALL THE WORK
This is the whole thing, really. The print is big and bold and confident, so it does the entire job of an outfit on its own. I have not put on a necklace, I have not fiddled with a scarf, I have not stood in front of the wardrobe holding things up against each other. I put it on over a pair of black trousers and I look like a woman who thought about what she was wearing, and it is honestly the least thought I give it all week.
The whole thing laid out. That pattern is the entire outfit, before you have added a single thing to it.
The pattern does all the work. No jewellery, no fuss, and I still look like I have made an effort. Wonderful.
Sylvia M., RuddingtonIT SKIMS OVER YOU INSTEAD OF CLINGING
It is cut loose and it hangs from the shoulders and flows, so it goes over the middle rather than sitting on it. That matters more in a photograph than anywhere else, because you are never standing nicely with your shoulders back when somebody takes one. You are halfway through laughing, or reaching across a table, and a clingy top finds every bit of you in that half-second. This one simply does not.
It skims right over the tummy, doesn't cling anywhere. First top in years I have felt relaxed in all day.
Janet P., HucknallTHE HEM SITS LONGER, AND CURVES DOWN AT THE BACK
Such a small piece of design, and such a relief. The hem is longer than most tops and it curves gently down at the back and the sides, so it sits over the hip instead of stopping at the worst possible point and riding up every time you move. I can wear it with anything and not spend the afternoon tugging at it, which is a habit I did not even know I had until I stopped doing it.
You can see the curve of it there on the hanger. It drops lower at the back, which is the whole point.
Lovely and long at the back, covers everything I want covered. No more pulling my top down all day.
Barbara W., KeyworthLONG SLEEVES THAT ROLL UP TO A LITTLE BUTTON TAB
The sleeves are full length, so my arms are covered, which I will not pretend I am not glad of. But there is a little tab with a button on each sleeve, so when I get warm I roll them up to the elbow and fasten them there and they stay put, no shoving them up every five minutes. Covered when I want to be, cooler when I need to be, and it looks deliberate either way. It is exactly the right sleeve for this time of year, when you are chilly walking in from the car and then far too warm the moment you sit down in somebody's overheated front room.
The little button tab that holds the sleeve at the elbow. Covered, or cooler, whichever you fancy.
Love that the sleeves button up at the elbow and actually stay there. Covers my arms but I am never too warm.
Hazel D., Radcliffe on TrentTHE V AND THE LITTLE COLLAR LIFT YOUR FACE
It is not a round neck sitting flat against your throat, and it is not a great gaping thing either. It is a soft V with a small neat collar standing up behind it, and it opens up the neck and frames the face, which is precisely where you want the eye to go when somebody is pointing a camera at you. It is the difference between looking closed up and looking bright.
The neckline is so flattering, opens everything up. My daughter said it takes years off me and she is not one for compliments.
Lynne A., MansfieldIT LAYERS, AND THE GREEN IS MADE FOR THIS TIME OF YEAR
For all that it looks like a proper blouse, it feels like nothing to wear, and because the fabric is light rather than bulky it goes underneath things without adding a scrap of thickness. Under a cardigan, under a blazer, under a coat, and it still sits flat and comfortable. That deep olive green is an autumn colour to begin with, so it looks right now in a way a summer top simply does not. It goes with jeans, with black trousers, with a skirt, with whatever you already own. It comes in my green and in a deep blue, and the sizes run honestly from a small right up to a 3XL, which is a UK 18 to 20.
So soft and light you forget you have it on, and it slips under a cardigan without any bulk. I have since ordered the blue one too.
Sheila K., CarltonThe Christabel, against the plain top you keep reaching for
Most of us have a drawer full of safe plain tops that never look wrong and never look like anything either. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Plain and flat, comes out tired in a photograph
Sits on the middle and clings
Stops short and rides up over the hip
Needs a necklace and a scarf to lift it
You end up behind the camera again
A bold print that reads as considered
Loose and flowing, skims straight over you
Longer hem, curved down at the back
The pattern does the dressing on its own
The one you are happy to be caught in
About the price
The Christabel is £32.95 at the moment. It was £66.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the middle sizes go first and, with only two colours in it, once a size has gone it can be a wait for it to come back. They also said the long-sleeved things always go quickest once the weather turns, and it has turned. 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 having worn this one half to death, I have found nothing wrong with it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. 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.
Folded and ready for the next lunch, the next birthday, the next time somebody points a phone at me.
If you have quietly become the one who always takes the photographs, this is the blouse I would put in your wardrobe myself, and I would do it now rather than in December. There is a whole autumn of birthdays and lunches and works dos between here and Christmas, and every one of them ends with somebody going round the table with a phone. Get it while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
CHRISTABEL | PATTERNED BLOUSE
- A bold print that does the whole outfit for you
- Loose and flowing, skims instead of clinging
- Longer hem, curved down at the back
- Long sleeves that button up at the elbow
- Soft V-neck and a neat little stand collar
- Light and soft, layers under a cardigan or coat
- A deep olive green made for autumn
- Two colours, honest sizes S to 3XL
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The weather has turned and the long sleeves go first. Only two colours in it.