At 62, the smart blazer I can actually move my arms in
At 62, the smart blazer I can actually move my arms in
Six things the Sorelle gets right that blazers 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 blazer in my life. What I had done was all but give them up, because for all that I love the smart, pulled-together look of a blazer, every one I owned was so stiff and tight across the arms that I could barely reach for my handbag, and I could not wait to peel it off. So this is not a review. It is a woman who found a blazer she can actually be comfortable in, saying why.
The one I am writing about is called the Sorelle, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is an elegant navy blazer, but the sleeves are made of a soft knit, so it is really half blazer and half cardigan. 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 it on over my jeans, reached up to a high shelf without a second thought, and realised the sleeves simply moved with me. That was the moment it won me over. Read on.
Here is the bargain a blazer always used to demand of me. Look smart, and be uncomfortable. The structured shoulders and sleeves that gave a blazer its lovely tailored look were the very things that pinned my arms to my sides, so I sat through lunches unable to reach for anything, shrugging and adjusting, counting the minutes until I could take it off. Smart on the outside, quietly miserable underneath. I had decided blazers and comfort simply did not go together.
A blazer always asked the same of me, look smart and be uncomfortable. This is the first one that let me have both.
The Sorelle is the first blazer I have owned that looks properly smart and lets me move, and having barely taken mine off since, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. A structured blazer front, and the loveliest soft knitted sleeves.
IT LOOKS LIKE A PROPER SMART BLAZER
From the front, it is every bit a blazer. It has a proper notched lapel, a smart double-breasted row of buttons and a structured, considered shape, all in a lovely felted navy, so it reads as a dear, tailored blazer that pulls an outfit together in an instant. Nobody looking at me would guess there was anything relaxed about it at all. It simply looks smart.
The lapel and buttons, and where the smooth wool meets the soft knit sleeve.
From the front it looks like a proper tailored blazer, so smart and dear-looking. Nobody guesses how comfortable it is.
Christine B., West BridgfordBUT THE SLEEVES ARE SOFT KNIT, SO YOU CAN MOVE
Here is the clever part, and the whole reason it works. The sleeves are not stiff tailored wool, they are a soft, cosy ribbed knit, so they move with your arms instead of pinning them down. I can reach, stretch up to a shelf, drive, settle into a chair, all the things an ordinary blazer never let me do. It is the difference between wearing a blazer and enduring one.
The knit sleeves make it. I can actually move my arms, reach, drive, all in a blazer. I have not taken it off.
Margaret E., SouthwellTHE BEST OF A BLAZER AND A CARDIGAN
That is really what it is. It has the smart, structured, dear look of a blazer where you can see it, and the soft, easy comfort of a cardigan where it counts. So I get to look pulled-together and feel comfortable at the same time, which is a combination I had quite given up on. Smart and cosy, in one thing, which is rather the dream at our age.
It is the best of both, a blazer and a cardigan in one. Smart where it shows, soft and comfy where it counts.
Pauline H., ArnoldA FLATTERING, STRUCTURED SHAPE
The structured shoulders and the long line of the lapel and buttons draw a lovely neat vertical line down the front, which is flattering, it lengthens and streamlines. It comes down neatly to the hip, so it covers and tidies rather than cutting you off, and worn open it frames a plain top beautifully. It flatters standing still and moving both, which is more than most things manage.
The neat lapel and the soft knit sleeve. Structured and flattering, and easy to wear.
The structured front is so flattering, it draws a neat line and covers to the hip. Smart and slimming, and comfy with it.
Dorothy S., BeestonIT THROWS OVER EVERYTHING AND SMARTENS IT
One blazer, and it lifts the lot. Over jeans and a plain top for the shops, over trousers for a lunch, over a dress for something nicer. Because it does all the smartening, whatever is underneath can be as simple and comfortable as I like, and the whole outfit still looks considered. It has become the thing I reach for whenever I want to look that bit smarter without any fuss.
By the wardrobe, ready to smarten up jeans, trousers or a dress.
It throws over everything and smartens it instantly, jeans, trousers, a dress. I feel pulled-together in seconds.
Eileen T., NewarkNINE LOVELY COLOURS, AND HONEST SIZES
The sizing runs honestly from a small up to a 3XL, cut with a neat but comfortable shape that sits well and flatters whatever your figure. It comes in nine lovely colours, my navy and a black, a grey, a khaki, a soft pink and more, so there is a shade to suit everyone. I have the navy, which goes with everything. I am rather tempted by the khaki for the autumn.
It goes up to my size and still looks smart and structured, not a sack. So pleased I have ordered the grey too.
Maureen C., BinghamThe Sorelle, against the stiff blazers you have given up on
You can love the look of a blazer and still never reach for one, because every one you own is a misery to wear. I know, because I did. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Stiff and tight across the arms
Can barely reach for your handbag
Smart, but you cannot wait to take it off
Look good, be uncomfortable
Ends up left on the hanger
A structured, smart blazer front
Soft knit sleeves you can move in
Smart AND comfortable at once
The best of a blazer and a cardigan
The one you actually reach for
About the price
The Sorelle is £46.95 at the moment. It was £96.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that the middle sizes and the popular colours are the first to go, and with the autumn 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 a blazer this smart and this comfortable, 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 day I want to look smart and still be comfortable.
If you love the look of a blazer but never the stiff, tight arms, this is the one I would put on your shoulders myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
SORELLE | KNIT-SLEEVE BLAZER
- Looks like a proper smart, tailored blazer
- Soft knit sleeves, so you can actually move
- The best of a blazer and a cardigan
- Notched lapel and double-breasted buttons
- Flattering, structured, neat line to the hip
- Throws over everything and smartens it
- Nine lovely colours, honest sizes S to 3XL
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now. Middle sizes and popular colours go first.