At 62, the tweed set that makes me feel a million dollars
At 62, the tweed set that makes me feel a million dollars
Six things the Melize gets right that make you feel expensive and confident, 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 an outfit in my life. What had happened, somewhere in my late fifties, was that I stopped feeling like the best-dressed version of myself. I had comfortable things and I had smart things, but nothing that made me feel properly pulled-together the way I used to feel walking into a room in my forties. So this is not a review. It is a woman who found that feeling again, from a two-piece set, saying why.
The one I am writing about is called the Melize, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is a two-piece set in a beautiful black-and-white tweed, a cropped jacket and matching wide-leg trousers, the sort of thing you would see in a smart boutique window and assume cost the earth. 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.
I put the two pieces on for the first time and stood a little taller in the mirror. That was the moment it won me over. Read on.
Here is what the years had quietly taken from me. Not comfort, I had plenty of that. What I had lost was the feeling of walking into a room and knowing I looked the part, that little bit of confidence that comes from being properly dressed. My smart things had become tired and my comfortable things were only ever for home, and somewhere in between I had started to fade into the background, and to mind it more than I let on.
What I had lost was not comfort, but confidence. The feeling of walking into a room knowing I looked the part. This gave it back.
The Melize is the first thing I have put on in years that made me feel expensive and confident at the same time, and having barely taken it off since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The whole look laid out. It looked far dearer than I had paid, and it comes together in seconds.
IT LOOKS LIKE AN EXPENSIVE DESIGNER SUIT
The first thing anyone says is how expensive it looks. The tweed is a proper bouclé, that lovely flecked black-and-white weave with a soft frayed trim, and the cut, the cropped jacket and the high wide-leg trousers, is the sort you see in a good boutique window with a price to match. It reads as a considered, designer sort of outfit, and nobody has ever guessed otherwise.
The bouclé tweed and the soft frayed trim. This is what makes it look so dear.
Everyone assumes it is designer. The tweed looks so expensive, I have had more compliments on this than anything I own.
Christine B., West BridgfordBUT IT COSTS A FRACTION OF WHAT IT LOOKS
The price I will deal with plainly, because it was my whole objection. Something that looks this dear should not be this affordable, and when a thing that looks expensive turns out not to be, I start asking what is wrong with it. I have worn mine to lunches and to church and to a family do, and I have found nothing wrong with it. It simply looks far more than it costs.
I could not believe the price for how it looks. My friend guessed three times what I paid, and she was still too low.
Margaret E., SouthwellA MATCHING SET DOES THE CONFIDENCE FOR YOU
Because the two pieces are made to go together, there is no standing at the wardrobe wondering if it works. You put the jacket and the trousers on, and the whole considered outfit is simply done, and you walk out of the door feeling pulled-together and sure of yourself. On the days I want to feel my best without the fuss, the Melize has already done the thinking for me.
I put both pieces on and instantly feel dressed and confident. No deciding, no fuss, I just feel a million dollars.
Pauline H., ArnoldTHE CUT IS SO FLATTERING
It is a genuinely flattering shape. The cropped jacket sits neatly at the waist and gives the shoulders a lovely line, and the high-waisted wide-leg trousers lengthen you and skim right over the middle and the hips. Together they draw one long, streamlined line, so you look taller and slimmer the moment you put them on, without breathing in or fussing with a thing.
The cropped jacket and high wide-leg trousers. They lengthen and streamline.
The cut is so flattering. The cropped jacket and wide trousers make me look taller and slimmer, I stand up straighter in it.
Dorothy S., BeestonDRESS IT UP, OR WEAR THE PIECES APART
It is really three outfits in one. The two pieces together, dressed up with a silky top and a nice earring, for anything smart. The jacket on its own over jeans and a plain top, to lift an ordinary day. The trousers with a jumper, for something a little different. So it earns its keep many times over, and it never sits unworn at the back of the wardrobe.
Ready for something lovely, or to be split into three different looks.
I wear the jacket with jeans and the trousers with a jumper, as well as the two together. Three outfits from one set.
Eileen T., NewarkHONEST SIZES TO A 5XL, AND THREE COLOURS
The sizing runs honestly all the way from an XS up to a 5XL, so it fits properly and flatters, with the jacket and trousers cut to sit well whatever your shape. It comes in three colours, my black-and-white tweed and a soft grey and a blue, so there is one to suit everyone. I have the black-and-white. I am rather tempted by the blue for the spring.
It goes up to my size and still looks elegant and expensive, not a sack. I have ordered the grey as well.
Maureen C., BinghamThe Melize, against the way most of us dress at our age
You can have a wardrobe full of clothes and still not one thing that makes you feel a million dollars. I know, because I did. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Comfortable things, only ever for home
Smart things gone tired and dated
Nothing that feels pulled-together
Fading quietly into the background
Or a fortune for one designer outfit
Looks like an expensive designer suit
Costs a fraction of what it looks
A matching set, instantly pulled-together
Makes you feel confident and a million dollars
Flattering, and honest sizes to a 5XL
About the price
The Melize is £44.95 at the moment. It was £90.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the middle sizes are the first to go, and with the sale on they are going quickly, so 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 an outfit that looks and feels this expensive, 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 occasion that calls for feeling a million dollars.
If you have stopped feeling like the best-dressed version of yourself, this is the outfit I would hand you myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
MELIZE | SOPHISTICATED & VERSATILE SET
- Looks like an expensive designer tweed suit
- Costs a fraction of what it looks
- A matching set, instantly pulled-together
- Cropped jacket and high wide-leg trousers, so flattering
- Dress it up, or wear the pieces apart, three looks in one
- Beautiful black-and-white bouclé tweed
- Honest sizes XS to 5XL, three colours
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The sale is on now. Middle sizes go first.