At 62, the cardigan I am actually happy to be seen out in
At 62, the cardigan I am actually happy to be seen out in
Six things the Nola gets right that everyday cardigans 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 cardigan in my life. What I have done is spend years pulling on the same tired old cardigans when it turns cold, the sort I only ever wear about the house because I would not want to be caught out in them. So this is not a review. It is a woman who finally found a cardigan she is happy to answer the door in, saying why.
The one I am writing about is called the Nola, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. 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 cardigan. I can hear you, because I said the same thing to my friend Sue. A cardigan means shapeless and dowdy, a nana in a chair. Then I saw the collar on it, and the little cream strip of buttons down the front, and I changed my mind. Read on.
Here is what a drawer full of cardigans taught me. When the cold comes, most of us have two piles to reach for. The frumpy pile, the bobbly shapeless ones that do the job indoors but that you would never answer the door in. And the smart pile, the jackets that look nice but are a performance to get on and off and are no good for sitting about in. I have owned plenty of both, and never once owned the one thing that was easy and smart at the same time.
A tired old cardigan I would not be seen out in, or a jacket that was a faff. Those were my two piles, and neither one would do.
The Nola is the first thing I have owned that is both, and having barely had it off since it came, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. Finer in the hand than I expected, and that collar sitting neatly on top.
IT IS A CARDIGAN, BUT IT LOOKS LIKE A SHIRT
The frumpy worry I will deal with first, because it was my objection too. What changes it is the collar. It is a proper point collar, knitted in the same stripe, that sits up neatly at the neck exactly like a shirt, and down the front there is a plain cream placket with small dark buttons. So it holds a clean line instead of drooping open. I put it on and I look tidy, which is not a word I have ever managed to use about a cardigan before.
The collar and the cream placket. That is the bit doing all the work.
The collar makes it. It looks like a smart little shirt-jacket rather than the shapeless cardigans I usually end up in.
Christine A., HucknallTHE STRIPE IS FINE, SO IT NEVER SHOUTS
The stripes are narrow cream lines running across a soft brown, the sort of stripe that has been perfectly acceptable for about fifty years and will be for fifty more. It is not a bold pattern that people will remember you in, and it is not a plain beige nothing either. It sits quietly between the two, which at our age is exactly where I want to be.
Hung up ready for the morning. Fine stripes, nothing loud about them.
Lovely fine stripe, not at all the bold thing I feared from the photos. It goes with far more than I expected.
Denise M., RuddingtonWEAR IT OPEN OR BUTTONED, IT IS TWO LOOKS
Because it buttons all the way up, it does two jobs. Left open over a top it is a relaxed, easy layer for pottering. Buttoned up it becomes a neat little top on its own, with the collar showing at the neck, and no blouse needed underneath. So it earns its keep twice over, and you can change it to suit where you are going without changing anything else.
Open over a top at home, buttoned up when I go out. Two outfits from one cardigan, which is good value in my book.
Valerie P., CotgraveTHE RIBBED CUFFS STAY WHERE YOU PUT THEM
A small thing that turns out to matter a great deal. The cuffs are properly ribbed, so when I push the sleeves up to wash my hands or start the dinner they stay put instead of sliding back down over my knuckles. The hem is ribbed too, so the whole thing keeps its shape rather than dropping and going out of sorts by teatime.
Sleeves pushed up at the table. They stay exactly where I leave them.
The cuffs actually stay up when I push them back, which sounds like nothing until you have spent years with sleeves in the washing-up water.
Maureen F., EastwoodA RELAXED HIP LENGTH THAT SITS OVER WHAT YOU OWN
It is cut relaxed and comes down to the hip, so it goes over what is already in your wardrobe without any fuss, and it covers the bit most of us would rather have covered. Jeans, ordinary trousers, a skirt on a Sunday. I have not had to buy a single thing to wear it with, and I have not had to hold my stomach in either.
Sits beautifully over jeans and trousers and covers what I want covered. Roomy but still neat.
Sheila W., CarltonSIX COLOURS, AND HONEST SIZES TO A 5XL
There are six colours, each one striped through with cream: my brown, a green, a charcoal, a pink, a light blue and a yellow. And the sizing runs honestly from a UK 8/10 right up to a 22/24, which is not something you can say about every smart-looking cardigan. Whatever size you take, you get the same collar and the same neat front.
Pleased it goes up to my size and still looks like the pictures. I have the brown and I have my eye on the charcoal.
Jean T., StaplefordThe Nola, against the cardigans you have been reaching for
You can find a cardigan for twenty-odd pounds almost anywhere. I know, because my drawer is full of them, most of them shapeless. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Shapeless, and only worn indoors
A droopy neckline with nothing to it
Plain and a bit nana-ish
Sleeves that slide back down
Often stop at the smaller sizes
A point collar that sits up like a shirt
A cream placket and neat buttons
A fine stripe that never shouts
Ribbed cuffs that stay pushed up
Honest sizes, all the way to a 5XL
About the price
The Nola is £32.95 at the moment. It was £66.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the popular colours and the middle sizes go first, and once a size in a colour 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 weeks of wearing it, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered a second colour. 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 and put away for about a day and a half, which is as long as it has ever stayed there.
If your cardigans are the sort you only wear indoors, and you have been putting a coat on over the top just to answer the door, I would start here. Go and have a look while your size and colour are still there.
Caroline
NOLA | Striped Collar Cardigan
- A knitted point collar that sits up like a shirt
- Cream button placket with dark buttons
- A fine cream stripe that never shouts
- Ribbed cuffs and hem that keep their shape
- Relaxed hip length, over jeans, trousers or a skirt
- Six colours · UK 8/10 (S) to UK 22/24 (5XL)
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now, half price. The middle sizes go first.