A letter from a reader

At 62, I look like I have layered, and I have put on one thing

I have never written to a shop before, and I did not expect my first letter to be about a jumper.

Here is the truth of it. I know perfectly well what looks smart on a woman my age. A collar showing at the neck, a bit of shape, something neat at the wrist. The trouble is what it takes to get there. A shirt under a jumper means the collar folded under itself at the back, the cuffs rucked up my arms, and the shirt tail working its way out while I am doing the shopping. By the time I had sorted myself out in the hall mirror I had usually taken the whole lot off again.

I wanted to look like I had made an effort. I did not want to spend twenty minutes making the effort.

So I gave up on layering and went out in a plain jumper, and felt a bit unfinished every time.

Then I saw it on a friend at a birthday lunch

My friend Pauline came in wearing a soft camel jumper with a proper folded collar sitting over a V, and I assumed she had a cream shirt on underneath. I said something about how neat her collar was staying. She laughed and pulled the neck forward to show me there was nothing under it at all. The collar is part of the jumper. She told me it was the Clarenda, from Nottingham Boutique, a little boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I ordered mine that evening.

What happened at the next lunch

I wore it a fortnight later with my navy trousers, and getting ready took about as long as it takes to say it. Three different women asked me where it was from, and two of them wanted to know where the shirt was from, which I enjoyed rather more than I should have. My friend Sue told me I looked like I had made an effort, which I have decided to take as a compliment.

What I noticed was that I never once went to the mirror to fix myself. No collar working its way under, no cuffs to push back up. It simply stayed as it was all afternoon.

Three things I have learned since

One. The collar is the whole trick. It folds over on itself above a V, so there is shape and a bit of structure at the neck without a shirt, a scarf or a necklace.

Two. You can still wear a shirt if you want to. It is cut to sit over a button up, with the shirt collar coming through the V and the shirt hem showing below. I do that if we are going somewhere nicer. Most days I do not.

Three. The little gold buttons finish it. Four at each side of the hem, small and neat. It is a small thing, but it is the difference between a plain jumper and something somebody has designed.

About the price

When I saw the price I was suspicious. Something with this much detail, I assumed, would either cost a small fortune or look cheap the moment it came out of the bag.

The Clarenda is £34.95. It was £70.

There is no catch. They have their autumn sale on, delivery is free, and it arrived looking exactly as it did in the pictures.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered a second one. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some sites, which if I am honest made me trust it more. One woman had written, "Everyone assumes I have a blouse on underneath. I have not. It is one jumper and it takes ten seconds." That was the one that decided it for me.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you came round and we sat out on the porch with a cup of tea, this is what I would tell you.

You are not lazy for wanting it to be easy. Find the things that do the fiddly bit for you, hang them at the front of the wardrobe, and give the rest to the charity shop.

It does not look like it was made for somebody half my age, and it does not look like I have given up either.

Caroline