A letter from a reader

At 62, I put one thing on and the outfit is finished

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

Here is the truth of it. My wardrobe is full of perfectly nice plain things. Black trousers, cream trousers, a dozen plain tops, all of them sensible and none of them adding up to anything. So every time something came up, a lunch, a christening, my brother's do, I would go into town and buy a whole outfit for the day. Wear it once. Hang it up. Do the same again six weeks later.

I had a wardrobe full of clothes and nothing to wear, which sounds like a joke until it is your own money.

So I kept buying outfits I wore once, and the plain things sat there doing nothing.

Then I saw it on a friend at a birthday lunch

My friend Pauline came in wearing an ivory blazer with great sweeps of black across it like somebody had gone at it with a paintbrush, and a bit of gold low down near the hem. Underneath she had a plain black top and plain cream trousers, the same as anybody's. She looked like she had been dressed by somebody. I asked her where it was from before we had even ordered. She told me it was the Vanessa, 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 the next lunch

I wore it a fortnight later over my plain black top and the cream trousers I have had for two years. Nothing else in the outfit was new. Three different women asked me where it was from, and my friend Sue told me I looked like I had made an effort, which I have decided to take as a compliment.

Not one of them asked about the trousers. That is rather the point. You put the interesting thing on top and nobody is looking at the rest of it.

Three things I have learned since

One. The print does the work, so the shape does not have to. It is a simple tailored blazer with notched lapels and one gold button. Nothing fussy. All the interest is in the painting.

Two. It works over everything plain. Black, cream, jeans, a simple roll neck. I have worn it three ways now and it looked like three outfits.

Three. It is as good going away as coming in. The brushstrokes carry on round the back, with a great black loop across the shoulders, so it does not stop at the front.

About the price

When I saw the price I was suspicious. Something that looks hand-painted, I assumed, would either cost a small fortune or look cheap and shiny the moment it came out of the bag.

The Vanessa is £33.95. It was £68.

There is no catch. They have their autumn sale on, delivery is free, and it arrived looking exactly as it did in the pictures.

I did go and read the reviews before I ordered a second one. 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 it over black, over cream and over jeans. Same jacket, three outfits, and people think it is a different one each time." 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.

Stop buying whole outfits for one afternoon. Buy one interesting thing that goes on top of the plain clothes you already own, and let it do the work for the next twenty occasions.

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