A letter from a reader

At 62, every shirt I owned looked like a uniform

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

I worked in an office for thirty-one years, and I dressed like it. White shirts, pale blue shirts, the odd stripe if I was feeling daring. Pressed, buttoned, sensible. I have been retired for a while now and I still open the wardrobe to a row of shirts that look like I am about to go in and do the payroll. They are perfectly nice. They are just not me any more, and I am not sure they ever were.

I wanted to look like I had chosen my clothes, not been issued them.

So I put up with it, and kept buttoning up the same old shirts.

Then I saw it on a friend at the open studios

Every October our village artists open their studios for a weekend, and Jean was helping out at the potter's. She had on the loveliest soft corduroy top in a dusty rose, with a high collar that wrapped round to one side and a row of big round buttons running down at a slant, and a hem that dipped lower on one side. It looked like something from a little independent boutique in a market town, the sort of thing you get asked about. She told me it was the Rosamund, 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 Saturday lunch

I wore it with my cream trousers to meet the girls for lunch in town, and then we wandered round the shops. Three different women asked me about it, one of them in the bookshop, and my friend Sue told me I looked like I had made an effort, which I have decided to take as a compliment. Nobody would have guessed I used to do the payroll.

It is a small thing, a top with a bit of character. I had forgotten how nice it is to feel like yourself in your clothes.

Three things I have learned since

One. A slant changes everything. The buttons run down at a diagonal from the high wrap collar, so it looks nothing like an ordinary shirt. Wear it buttoned right up on a cooler day, or leave the top open for a softer neckline.

Two. Corduroy is lovely and soft. It is a fine, velvety cord, gentle on the skin and a little bit warmer than a cotton shirt, just right for this time of year.

Three. The shape is kind. It is loose and relaxed with a hem that dips lower on one side, so it skims rather than clings, and the roomy sleeves are gathered at the wrist and easy to push up.

About the price

I had assumed something this unusual would cost a fortune in a boutique.

The Rosamund is £37.95. It was £76.

There is no catch. They have their autumn sale on and delivery is free. Mine is the dusty rose, and the same top comes in olive green, terracotta, burgundy, cream and black, all the same price, from a UK 8 up to a UK 18.

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, "I have worn plain shirts all my life. This is the first top people stop me to ask about." 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 do not have to dress like you still work in an office. Find one piece with a little character, and see how it makes you feel.

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