A letter from a reader

At 62, I stopped choosing between comfortable and dressed

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

Here is the truth of it. For years there were two piles in my wardrobe. The soft things, which I lived in and which made me look like I had come to do the ironing. And the smart things, which looked lovely on the hanger and felt like putting on armour, so they hung by the door and went nowhere. Every time we went out I stood between the two of them and picked the comfortable one, and then felt underdressed the whole way through lunch.

Comfortable or dressed. I had accepted that at my age you get one or the other, and I had chosen.

So I wore the cardigan everywhere, and carried the good coat in and out of the car without ever putting it on.

Then I saw it on a friend at the garden centre

My friend Pauline met me for a coffee in a long cream coat with denim at the collar and down the front, worn open over a plain top and jeans. It looked like proper outerwear, and when I reached out to feel the sleeve it was soft ribbed knit, like a cardigan. She said she had been in it since eight that morning. She told me it was the Verina, 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 garden centre

I wore it the following Saturday over a white top and my jeans, for a wander round the plants and a coffee afterwards. 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.

What I noticed was that I never took it off. Not in the café, not in the car. A coat comes off the moment you sit down and ends up over the back of a chair. This one just stayed on, and I forgot about it.

Three things I have learned since

One. The denim does the standing up. The collar, the front edges, the cuffs and the hem are denim, and that is what holds the shape. A cardigan slumps. This hangs.

Two. The knit does the comfort. Everything that actually touches you is soft ribbed knit, so it moves with you and there is no stiff lining or heavy weight on your shoulders.

Three. It is made to hang open. There is no zip and no belt to fuss with, so it goes straight over whatever you already have on and stays put while you get on with the day.

About the price

When I saw the price I was suspicious. Something that looks like this in the photographs, I assumed, would either cost a small fortune or feel thin and cheap the moment it came out of the bag.

The Verina is £39.95. It was £80.

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, "It feels like my cardigan and looks like my coat. I have stopped wearing both." 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 dressing for the photograph and stop dressing for the sofa. There are things now that do both, and once you own one you will wonder why you spent ten years choosing.

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