At 62, the One Blazer That Pulls It Together
At 62, the one blazer that pulls my whole wardrobe together
Six things the Clara gets right that everyday blazers 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 blazer in my life. What I have done is stand in front of a wardrobe full of perfectly nice tops and trousers, feeling as though none of it quite adds up to an outfit, and reach for the same cardigan yet again. So this is not a review. It is a woman who finally found the one thing that pulls it all together, saying why.
The one I am writing about is called the Clara, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I first saw it on a woman at a garden centre cafe, thrown over her jeans, and 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 blazer. I can hear you, because I said the same to my friend Sue. A blazer is a stiff, formal thing you save for a funeral, I thought. Then I saw it thrown casually over her jeans, soft and easy, and how it lifted the whole outfit. Read on.
Here is what a full wardrobe and nothing to wear taught me. When we want to look a little more put together we tend to have two options. The give-up option, the same old cardigan, comfortable but dowdy, that adds nothing at all. And the stiff option, a formal jacket that feels boxy and hot and severe, that I never quite reach for. I have owned both and never once had a layer that was easy to wear and pulled an outfit together at the same time.
The same dowdy cardigan, or a stiff formal jacket I never reach for. Those were my two options, and neither one felt like me.
The Clara is the first thing I have owned that is neither, and having worn it more in a fortnight than any jacket I own, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. It looked far dearer than I had paid, and softer than I expected.
IT SMARTENS UP ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING
This is the magic of it, and the reason I keep reaching for it. Throw it over the most ordinary outfit, jeans and a plain top, and you look at once as though you have made a real effort. It does the work for you. On the mornings I cannot be bothered to think, I put the Clara on over whatever I have, and I walk out looking pulled together. At our age, that is worth its weight in gold.
I throw it over jeans and a tee and suddenly I look like I have made an effort. It does all the work for me.
Christine B., West BridgfordTHE CHECK LOOKS FAR DEARER THAN IT IS
Up close, the cloth is the thing. It is a proper heritage check, the grey with a fine thread of colour running through it, the sort you see in an expensive window and assume costs a fortune. Nobody has ever guessed what I paid, and I confess I have not rushed to tell them. It simply looks expensive, which is half the battle won before you leave the house.
The check up close. This is what makes people assume it was dear.
Two people asked if it was designer. The check genuinely looks like it cost three times what I paid.
Margaret E., SouthwellIT IS TAILORED, BUT IT IS SOFT AND BREATHABLE
I dreaded that stiff, boxy, hot feeling a formal jacket gives you. This is not that at all. It has a proper tailored shape that holds its line and flatters, but the cloth is soft and breathable, a comfortable cotton sort of blend, so you can wear it all day without stewing or feeling trussed up. Structured to look at, easy to live in.
Tailored enough to look smart, but soft and light so I can wear it all day. Not stiff or hot in the least.
Dorothy S., BeestonWORN OPEN, THE LAPEL IS SO FLATTERING
I wear it open, as it is meant to be worn, and the long notched lapel runs down each side of the front and draws a lovely vertical line. It skims the middle rather than clinging to it, and it lengthens you and slims you without a bit of effort. It is the most flattering thing, and I had quite forgotten a good jacket could do that.
Worn open, with a hand in the pocket. The long lapel skims and lengthens.
Worn open it skims right over the middle and makes me look taller and slimmer. So flattering.
Pauline H., ArnoldIT GOES ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE
One blazer, and it does the lot. Over jeans for the shops and a coffee, over trousers for a lunch, over a dress for an evening out. Spring and autumn it is all I reach for. It has quietly become the piece that ties half my wardrobe together, the thing that turns clothes I already owned into proper outfits.
On the wardrobe door, ready to lift whatever I am wearing.
Jeans, trousers, a dress, it works over everything. I reach for it far more than anything else I own.
Eileen T., NewarkHONEST SIZES, AND TWO LOVELY COLOURS
The sizing runs honestly all the way up to a 5XL, which is not something you can say of every smart jacket, and it holds its tailored shape beautifully wash after wash. It comes in two colours, the grey check with a warm red running through it, like mine, and a grey check with a cool blue. I have the red. I am half tempted by the blue for the spring.
It goes up to my size and still looks tailored and smart, not a sack. I have ordered the blue as well.
Maureen C., BinghamThe Clara, against the layers you have been reaching for
You can find a jacket for forty-odd pounds almost anywhere. I know, because I have a wardrobe full of them, most of them either dowdy or stiff. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
A dowdy cardigan that adds nothing
Or a stiff, boxy, formal jacket
Hot and severe, saved for funerals
Plain, and looks as cheap as it was
Often stops at the smaller sizes
Smartens any outfit in one move
Tailored but soft and breathable
Easy all day, worn open and flattering
Heritage check that looks far dearer
Honest sizes, all the way to a 5XL
About the price
The Clara is £37.95 at the moment. It was £76.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the middle sizes and the popular colour are the first to go, and once a size has gone it can be a 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 for a blazer that looks like this, 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 away, ready for the next morning I want to look pulled together.
If you have a wardrobe full of clothes and nothing that pulls them together, and you would like one easy piece that smartens the lot, this is the one I would put on your shoulders myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
CLARA | ELEGANT BLAZER
- Tailored, hip-length blazer with a lapel collar
- Heritage check that looks far dearer than it is
- Smartens any outfit in one move
- Soft, breathable cotton blend, not stiff or hot
- Worn open, the long lapel skims and flatters
- Works over jeans, trousers or a dress
- Two colours, honest sizes S to 5XL
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
Middle sizes and the popular colour go first.