A letter from a reader

At 62, fiddly little buttons had started to beat me

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

My fingers are not what they were, especially first thing on a cold morning. I had a drawer full of lovely cardigans with rows of tiny buttons, and I had quietly stopped wearing them. Doing them up took me an age. Half the time I would get one in the wrong hole and have to start again, and more than once I went out with it hanging open and spent the day feeling the chill.

I could have a pretty cardigan I struggled with, or a dull fleece I could manage. I did not think I could have both.

So the cardigans stayed in the drawer, and I lived in my old zip-up fleece.

Then I saw one on my friend Jean at coffee morning

Jean came in from the cold in the prettiest burgundy cardigan, an open knit with little holes all over it, and as she sat down she zipped it straight up to the collar in one go without even looking. I said that is what I need. She told me it was from Nottingham Boutique, a little boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is called the Janice. I ordered mine that evening.

What happened at the harvest supper

I wore it to the church harvest supper over a plain cream top and my dark jeans. When the hall door kept letting the cold in, I just zipped it up, and when they turned the heaters on, I zipped it down. Three different women asked me about it before the pudding, and my friend Sue told me I looked like I had made an effort, which I have decided to take as a compliment.

It sounds a small thing, a zip. But it meant I could get myself dressed nicely, on my own, without a struggle, and that felt like a little bit of independence back.

Three things I have learned since

One. A zip is kinder than buttons. One easy pull, all the way from the hem to the collar. Up when there is a draught, down when it is warm. I can do it with cold hands and without my glasses.

Two. Texture does the work. The open-hole knit lets whatever you wear underneath show through, so a plain top and jeans suddenly look like you thought about it.

Three. Ribbed edges keep it smart. A neat ribbed stand collar, cuffs and hem mean it keeps its shape all day and never looks like a sloppy cardigan. It is light enough to layer and it does not cling.

About the price

I had expected a knit like this to cost a good deal more.

The Janice is £39.95. It was £80.

There is no catch. They have their autumn sale on and delivery is free. It comes in beige, black, olive green, taupe, blue and burgundy, from a UK 6 up to a UK 20.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered. 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, "My hands are stiff in the mornings and this is the first cardigan in years I can do up myself. And it is pretty too." 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.

If your lovely cardigans are sitting in a drawer because the buttons have got the better of you, you do not have to give up looking nice to stay warm. You just need one with a zip.

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