At 62, I spent every autumn walk holding my cardigan shut
At 62, I spent every autumn walk holding my cardigan shut
Six things the Wrenna gets right that my old cardigans got 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 cardigan. But my friend Sue took a photograph of me on our walk round the park last autumn, and I did not like what I saw. Not my face. My hand. It was clamped at my chest, holding my cardigan closed against the wind, and it was the same in every photo she took that day. I realised I had walked like that every autumn for years. So this is not a review. It is a woman who got her hand back, saying so.
What I found is from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. It is a whole collection of printed zip-up cardigans, and mine is the Wrenna: a soft oatmeal knit with orange poppies, blue cornflowers and little daisies growing up from the hem, a zip all the way to a ribbed stand collar. 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 flowery cardigan with a zip. At 62. Read on.
Here is how it happens, and I suspect it happens to most of us. Most cardigans are made to be worn open, or they have a row of buttons that gape and let the wind straight in. So on a breezy day you end up holding it shut with one hand, or folding your arms like you are cross with someone, and you spend the whole walk thinking about your cardigan instead of the trees.
I did not need a warmer cardigan. I needed one that would stay shut without me.
The Wrenna is the first cardigan I have owned that I can zip up and forget, and having worn it on every walk since it arrived, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The afternoon it came. Even prettier than the pictures.
A zip, all the way up
It has a full-length zip with a little ring pull, so one pull and it is shut, top to bottom. No buttons to gape, no gap for the wind to find. I zip it up at the park gate and that is the last I think of it.
Zipped up at the gate. Both hands free for the rest of the walk.
I love that it zips. I am forever losing buttons and this just stays done up.
Margaret A., BeestonA little collar that keeps the chill off
The zip runs up into a ribbed stand collar, so it closes snugly round my neck. On a breezy morning that little collar makes all the difference, and it looks neat too, not like a scarf I have forgotten to take off.
The stand collar is lovely. Keeps the cold off my neck without needing a scarf.
Jean P., ArnoldOpen when I come inside
Because it is a full-length zip, I can wear it wide open too. In the café afterwards I unzip it over a plain white top and it looks just as nice open as closed.
Unzipped for tea at the garden centre.
Looks great open or zipped. I wear it over a white T-shirt with jeans.
Pauline H., HucknallA meadow you can wear
The print is orange poppies, blue cornflowers and little daisies on a soft oatmeal, growing up from the hem as if you were walking through a field. It is cheerful without being loud, and on a grey October afternoon it makes me smile every time I catch sight of it.
On the wardrobe door. The poppies and cornflowers growing up from the hem.
So pretty. I have had more compliments on this cardigan than anything I own.
Sheila T., Long EatonNeat cuffs and hem
The cuffs and hem are ribbed, so it finishes tidily at the wrist and the hip and holds its shape. It is a relaxed fit, easy over a top, but it never looks sloppy.
Lovely relaxed fit and the ribbed hem keeps it looking neat.
Brenda C., CarltonSeventeen prints to choose from
Mine is the Wrenna, but the collection has seventeen different prints, from vintage roses to cheerful hearts, all the same price, in sizes from UK 8/10 up to UK 18/20. I have my eye on a second one already.
Bought the wildflower one and went back for the roses. Choosing was the hard part.
Christine M., West BridgfordThis, against my old cardigans
Most of us have a drawer of cardigans made to be worn open. I know, because mine is full of them. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Made to hang open
Buttons that gape in the wind
One hand holding it shut all walk
A bare, chilly neck
Plain, and a bit dreary
A full-length zip, one pull and it is shut
No buttons, no gaps
Both hands free
A ribbed stand collar
Poppies and cornflowers on soft oatmeal
About the price
The Wrenna is £32.95 at the moment. It was £66.00. Every print in the collection is the same price.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that with the autumn sale on the middle sizes are going first, and once this batch has gone it can be a long 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 after weeks of wearing it, I have not found it.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered a second print. 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.
If you have spent another autumn walk with one hand holding your cardigan shut, I would start here. Not because you need more clothes, but because you deserve to walk with both hands free and enjoy the leaves. Go and have a look while your size is still there.
Caroline
The Floral Zip-Up Cardigan Collection
- A full-length zip, wear it open or zipped right up
- A ribbed stand collar that keeps the chill off
- Ribbed cuffs and hem that hold their shape
- Relaxed fit, easy over a top
- Seventeen prints, all the same price
- Mine is the Wrenna wildflower, UK 8/10 (S) to UK 18/20 (3XL)
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
The autumn sale is on now, half price. The middle sizes are going first.