At 62, a jumper that is finally never wrong at the neck
At 62, a jumper that is finally never wrong at the neck
Six things the Ruby gets right that jumpers 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 jumper in my life. What I had was a drawer. A whole drawer of jumpers I do not wear, every one of them perfectly nice, and every one of them wrong in exactly the same place. At the neck. So this is not a review. It is a woman who finally worked out what the problem had been all along, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Ruby, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is a soft quarter zip jumper with a cable pattern worked through it, and I have mine in the shade they call apricot, which is really more of a pale buttery cream than a peach, and all the lovelier for it. 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 zip. On a jumper. I will admit I thought it looked a bit sporty for me when I first saw it, and very nearly scrolled straight past. Read on.
Here is what thirty years of jumpers taught me. There are two kinds and both of them are wrong. There is the polo neck, which looks lovely walking out of the house and then feels like a hand round your throat the moment you sit down somewhere with the heating turned up, so you spend the whole morning pulling at it. And there is the round neck, which sits too wide and too low, so the draught goes straight across your chest every time somebody opens a door, and you never feel quite covered up. I had assumed for years that this was simply the choice, and that I had to pick which sort of uncomfortable I preferred.
It was never the wool, and it was never my shape. It was the neck. Every single time, it was the neck.
And it matters more now than it did, because this is the time of year the jumpers come out and stay out, from now until the spring. The Ruby is the first one I have owned that solved it, and having barely had it off since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. Softer than I expected, and that little round zip pull is rather lovely.
YOU SET THE NECKLINE YOURSELF
This is the whole thing, and it is so simple I cannot think why it took me until 62 to find it. There is a short zip at the front with a little round pull on it, and you put the neck wherever you want it. All the way up and it sits neat and closed at the throat. Halfway down and it opens out into a soft V that shows a necklace nicely. You are not stuck with somebody else's idea of a neckline for the whole day, which is what every other jumper in that drawer of mine insists on.
Finger and thumb through the little ring, and the neck goes exactly where you want it.
I bought it for the zip because I cannot bear a polo neck, and now it is the only jumper I reach for.
Margaret L., SouthwellWARM WHEN YOU NEED IT, COOL WHEN YOU DO NOT
The reason it matters is that one day is never one temperature, especially now. I zip it right up walking out to the car when the wind is going straight through me, and then I sit down in somebody's front room with the heating up full and I slide it down and carry on with my tea, instead of going red in the face and wondering how soon I can leave. It takes a second and nobody notices you doing it.
The short zip and its little round pull. Up when the wind is out, down when the heating is on.
Zipped up in the car, down again indoors. Sounds like nothing but it has made a real difference to me.
Jean C., CotgraveTHE CABLE PATTERN MAKES IT LOOK FAR DEARER THAN IT IS
It is not a flat plain jumper. There is a raised cable pattern, the twisted rope sort, running in columns all the way through it, in the same colour as the rest so it is not showy about it. It catches the light and gives it some depth, and it reads as a proper knitted jumper from across a room. What it is not is thick and chunky, because the cable is worked into the fabric itself rather than knitted up in great heavy ropes, so it stays fine and flat and does not add inches to you. My friend Sue asked where I had got my lovely knit and would not have it that I had not spent a great deal more than I had.
Looks like an expensive cable knit. Nobody believes me when I tell them what I paid for it.
Denise F., Kirkby-in-AshfieldPROPER LONG SLEEVES, WITH THE CUFFS TO MATCH
The sleeves are full length and they stay where they are put, which at this time of year is the entire point. There is ribbing at the wrist that closes round the arm, so you do not get that cold gap between your sleeve and your glove walking back from the shops, and the sleeve does not go riding up your forearm every time you reach for something. My arms are covered, and I will not pretend I am not glad of that either.
Lovely long sleeves and the cuffs stay put, no cold gap at the wrist. Just right for this weather.
Rosemary B., EdwinstoweTHE RIBBED CUFFS AND HEM KEEP IT NEAT
So many jumpers just hang off the shoulders like a sack and end wherever they end. This one has proper ribbing at the wrists and a ribbed band across the bottom, so it holds its shape, sits tidily on the hip and does not go baggy and sad by the afternoon. It is a regular fit rather than a great swamping thing, and because it is not bulky it goes under a coat without you having to fight your way into the sleeves.
Hanging ready with the boots and the scarf. It is the first thing I reach for now.
Holds its shape all day, no sagging, and it fits lovely under my winter coat without any bulk.
Val H., WorksopSIX COLOURS, AND IT GOES WITH EVERYTHING YOU OWN
It goes with jeans, with trousers, with a skirt, with whatever is already in your wardrobe, which is rather the point of a jumper. There are six colours, my apricot and a white, a black, a grey, a blue and a pink, so there is a shade for everybody, and the sizes run from a small up to a 2XL, which is a UK 16 to 18. I have the apricot. I have since ordered the grey as well, which tells you everything.
Goes with absolutely everything I own. I ordered a second colour within the fortnight, no regrets.
Anne T., RetfordThe Ruby, against the jumpers already in your drawer
Most of us have a drawer of perfectly nice jumpers we do not wear, and it is almost always the same reason. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
A polo neck that strangles you indoors
Or a round neck that lets the draught in
Thick and chunky, adds inches to you
Hangs off the shoulders like a sack
Perfectly nice, and never worn
A zip, so you set the neck yourself
Change it the second you get too warm
Fine and flat, and it still looks knitted
Ribbed cuffs and hem keep it neat
The one you actually reach for
About the price
The Ruby is £32.95 at the moment. It was £66.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the middle sizes go first, and that the jumpers always go quickest once the weather turns, and it has turned. 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 having worn this one nearly every day since it came, 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 and ready for the mornings that are getting colder, which is most of them now.
If you have a drawer of perfectly nice jumpers you never wear because the neck is never quite right, this is the one I would put in it, and I would do it now rather than in November. The jumpers go first once the cold comes, and it is coming. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
RUBY | QUARTER-ZIP SWEATER
- A short zip, so you set the neckline yourself
- Warm zipped up, cool slid down again
- Raised cable pattern, looks like a proper knit
- Fine and flat, not thick and chunky
- Ribbed cuffs and hem band keep it neat
- Light enough to layer under a coat
- Six colours, honest sizes S to 2XL
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The weather has turned and the jumpers go first. Middle sizes go quickest.