At 62, I finally stopped trying to find a top that matched my trousers
At 62, I finally stopped trying to find a top that matched my trousers
Six things the Margaret set gets right that my drawer of odd separates got 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 I know exactly how the morning of every family do goes in my house. I put on the good trousers. I try a top with them, and it is nearly the right green but not quite. I try another, and the navy looks black next to them in the daylight. Four tops later I am back in the same black trousers and the same cardigan I always wear, and I am late. So this is not a review. It is a woman who stopped trying to match things up, 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 Margaret, a three-piece set: a long open cardigan with a print of leaves in black and soft peach on olive green, and a plain top and trousers in exactly the same olive. 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 matching set. At 62. Read on.
Here is how it happens, and I suspect it happens to most of us. We buy our clothes one piece at a time, when something catches our eye or the old one wears out. So nothing was ever bought to go with anything else. The trousers came from one shop, the top from another, and the cardigan was a present. Every outfit is a little puzzle, and most mornings we do not have the patience for it, so we wear the same safe pieces again.
I had a wardrobe full of clothes and not one outfit in it. Just pieces that had never been introduced to each other.
The Margaret is the first thing I have owned where the puzzle was done for me before it arrived, and having worn it to a family lunch and a good few days since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The afternoon it came. Three pieces, and every one of them the same green.
The colour is matched for you
The top and the trousers are plain, and they are exactly the olive green of the cardigan's background. Not nearly. Exactly. I held the trousers up against the cardigan in the window, because I did not believe it, and you cannot see the join. That one thing is the whole point. There is no deciding to do.
Everything matches perfectly, which never happens when I buy things separately. I just put it on and go.
Gillian R., BeestonThe print does all the talking
All the pattern is on the cardigan: big leaves, some in black and some in a soft peach, scattered over the olive. Because the top and trousers are plain, it never looks busy. It looks like an outfit somebody chose with care, which is a lovely thing to be mistaken for.
The leaves up close, by the window. Black and a soft peach on olive green.
The print is beautiful in real life, the peach and black on the green is so classy.
Hazel T., ArnoldA long cardigan that does a kind job
The cardigan is long and open, and it falls well past the hips. The boutique calls it a long, flattering line, and I would agree. It skims over the parts I would rather not have on show, and it makes the whole outfit look taller and easier than anything I put together myself.
From the back, on the way out. It comes down well past the hips.
Love the length of the cardigan, it covers my bottom and looks so smart with the trousers.
Pamela W., Long EatonThree outfits, not one
It is made to be worn together, and that is how I wear it most. But the pieces work on their own too. The cardigan has been over my navy trousers and a white blouse. The olive trousers have been out with a cream jumper. I bought one set and found I had three new outfits in the wardrobe.
On the wardrobe door the night before. The top under the cardigan, the trousers beside.
I wear the cardigan with my own trousers too. Feels like getting three things for one.
Doreen B., HucknallNothing tight, nothing clingy
The fit is relaxed all the way through. The top sits easy, the trousers are a straight leg, and nothing pulls when I sit down for lunch. I wore it from noon until the washing up was done at my daughter's, and I never once wanted to get changed.
In my daughter's conservatory on Sunday, with a cup of tea after lunch.
So comfortable, I wore it all day at my grandson's christening. Smart but nothing tight.
Marilyn S., CarltonReal sizes, and plenty of prints
It comes in UK 8/10 right up to UK 22/24. Mine is the olive leaf, but the collection has over thirty other sets, in navy, burgundy, plum, paisleys and soft marbled prints. If olive is not your colour, there will be one that is.
So many lovely prints to choose from, I have ordered a second one already.
Brenda H., West BridgfordThis, against my drawer of odd separates
Most of us have a drawer full of tops and trousers that were never bought to go together. I know, because mine takes two hands to shut. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Bought one at a time, from different shops
Colours that are nearly right but not quite
Four tops tried on before every family do
Back in the same black trousers again
Clothes, but no outfits
Three pieces made to go together
Top and trousers exactly the cardigan's olive
Dressed in the time it takes to put it on
A long printed cardigan people notice
One set, three outfits
About the price
The Margaret set is £45.95 at the moment, for all three pieces. It was £92.00.
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 this batch 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, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered one for my sister 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 four tops on the bed and the clock ticking before a family do, I would start here. Not because your clothes are wrong, but because they were never introduced to each other. Go and have a look while your size is still there.
Caroline
MARGARET | Three-Piece Set
- Three pieces: long cardigan, top and trousers
- Olive leaf print cardigan, open front, past the hips
- Plain round-neck top in the matching olive
- Full-length straight-leg trousers in the matching olive
- Relaxed fit, nothing tight or clingy
- UK 8/10 (S) to UK 22/24 (5XL), over thirty prints in the collection
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now, half price on every set. The middle sizes are going first.