A letter from a reader

At 68, I finally solved the cardigan or coat problem

Every autumn, the same argument at the front door. It is too cold for the cardigan and too mild for the coat, and whichever one I pick, I regret it by the end of the road.

I had accepted this as one of the season’s taxes, like leaves in the gutters. Then last Saturday, at the market, the woman on the veg stall handed me my potatoes and said something that has rather changed my autumn.

You never got that jacket round here. Where is that from?

By the time I left, three women had asked, and one of them had written the name on a paper bag. For a jacket I had put on mostly because it was the right warmth for the day. So let me explain it properly, once.

How it happens

Nobody buys a jacket like this on purpose at first. You own cardigans, which are for indoors and kid ourselves otherwise. And you own a coat, which is for winter proper.

And between them sits October. Two months of weather that cannot make its mind up, spent either shivering in knitwear or sweating in a winter coat with your gloves stuffed in your pockets like evidence.

The in-between jacket is the missing piece. We all know it. We just never get round to buying one, because the cardigan is right there on the hook.

What I had wrong

Here is the bit I got most wrong. I assumed an in-between jacket had to be a boring one. An anorak, or something beige from an outdoor shop, chosen for the zip.

Then I found this one. The right weight for autumn, proper long sleeves, sits over a roll neck or a blouse without bunching, and it is, and I say this as a plain-spoken woman, the prettiest thing I own.

Mine is the Estrella

It is from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly dressing women like us for a few years now.

It is called the Estrella. A soft washed blue with a big vintage paisley print across the shoulders that dissolves to plain blue by the hem, so it is interesting without being loud. Two neat rows of little bronze buttons run down the front, and a narrow frill follows the edges and the hem, which sounds fussy written down and looks anything but.

The details hold up close, too. The cuffs roll and button in place, the hem is softly curved, and the fit is shaped without being tight, so it moves with you rather than sitting on you like a box.

And the part that matters most at my age. It goes in the washing machine, and it does not want ironing. A pretty thing with no demands. Rare in jackets, rarer in general.

What happened at the market

I wore it open over a cream roll neck and jeans, because that is what Saturday looks like. The veg stall woman asked first, then a woman at the bakery queue, then a third I do not know at all, who crossed over to ask.

My husband Ken, who notices nothing before noon, asked if it was new. It was not. That is the kind of jacket this is.

Three things I have learned since

One. It ends the door argument. Right warmth for almost every autumn day, over knitwear when it turns colder. I have not worn the wrong layer since it arrived.

Two. Interesting beats loud. The print fades out, so it reads as one lovely blue from a distance and a talking point up close. You can wear it with everything you own.

Three. Low maintenance wins. Machine wash, hang it up, done. A jacket you are not afraid to actually wear is worth three you are saving.

About the price

I want to be straightforward about this, because it was the thing that made me hesitate.

The Estrella is £44.95 at the moment. It was £90.00.

For the two months a year the cardigan and the coat both fail, plus every mild day either side, that is the hardest-working spot in the wardrobe. Mine has earned its keep in a fortnight.

I did what I imagine you are doing now and went and read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars. Not the suspiciously perfect five you see on some websites, which if I am honest made me trust it more. One woman had written, “I bought it for best and now I wear it to the shops because I cannot leave it in the wardrobe.” That was the one that did it for me.

And it is one of a whole collection of these jackets, dozens of designs, so there will be one that is properly you.

What I would tell you if we were friends

If you and I were stood at that stall and you asked me, this is what I would say. So here it is, the short version.

Count how many mornings this month you have stood at the door between the cardigan and the coat. That gap in the wardrobe is real, you feel it twice a day, and it costs less to fill than the coat did.

Two practical things. The sale is on now, and the first autumn stock is already going, so the popular designs and the middle sizes disappear first. The collection runs from XS to 5XL.

The cardigan is for indoors. The coat is for January. This is for now.

Pat