Six things, laid out plainly

I have bought my husband jumpers for forty-odd years. This is the first one I have ever written a letter about.

Six things this plain blue zip-neck jumper gets right that a lifetime of too-tight and too-baggy ones never did, from a wife who went back for a second colour before the season was out.

Pat Holloway · Customer · Leeds · 5 min read

I had better say who is talking before anything else. I am Pat, I am 68, I live in Leeds with my husband Brian, who is 70, and his spaniel Wilf. I have been buying that man his jumpers since before our children were born, and in all that time I have never once thought one was worth a second look, never mind a letter. Well. I have changed my mind.

The jumper I am writing about is the Thomas, from Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique I have been buying my own things from for a while now. It is a men’s jumper with a short zip at the neck and a little stand-up collar, in a soft, smooth knit. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.

I first saw it at the rugby. Brian has had the same two seats in the stand at Headingley for years, and most of this season we have sat two rows behind the same man. Wind, drizzle, the lot, and there he is with his collar up to his chin, looking like he has somewhere better to be afterwards. I had always assumed his wife ironed him into something expensive before every match. Then at the last home game I noticed he was in blue, and the week before it had been grey, and the week before that a sort of oatmeal. The same jumper, three colours. At half-time I leaned over and asked his wife, plainly. Her name is Irene, she bought him all three, and she wrote the name down for me on the back of my hand. Read on.

The blue one, over the arm of Brian’s chair, where it lives when it is not on him. Which is not often.

Here is what forty-odd years of buying a man jumpers taught me. They come in two piles. The smart ones, that look lovely in the shop and then strain across the middle the minute he sits down to his dinner. And the comfortable ones, that he will happily live in, and that hang off him like a sack by Christmas and make him look ten years older than he is.

A jumper for a man his age was either smart and tight or comfortable and shapeless. I had stopped expecting one that was both, and I had stopped expecting him to wear anything I bought.

This is the first one I have bought him that manages both, and having watched him live in it through a wet end of September, two home matches and a Sunday lunch at our daughter’s, I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The morning it came. I opened it on the bed to have a proper look before he could get his hands on it.

1

The zip at the neck does two jobs

This is the one Irene put top of her list, and she was right. There is one short zip at the neck, and it stops at the top of the chest, so it is not a cardigan and nothing flaps open. Done up, the little collar stands right up round his neck, which is how the man at Headingley wears it on a raw afternoon. Undone, it sits open over a shirt collar, and suddenly he looks dressed for Sunday lunch without having to find a tie. Same jumper, two looks, one zip.

Sunday morning, zip half down over his checked shirt. He looked like he was going somewhere. He was going to the paper shop.

★★★★★

My husband wears it zipped right up for walking the dog and open over a shirt when we go out for dinner. It looks smart both ways.

Margaret H., Leominster

3

It is cut neat, without being tight

This is the one I did not see coming. The boutique describes it as a tailored fit that does not feel tight or restrictive, and that is exactly how it sits on Brian. It does not cling across the middle the way the smart ones always did, and it does not hang off his shoulders like a borrowed coat. It just looks like it is his size. I stood him in the back garden with the rake to see it properly, and for the first time in years I did not want to tug at anything.

Brian in the back garden with the rake, leaves everywhere. Neat, not tight. I did not have to tug at a thing.

★★★★★

Every jumper I buy my husband either strains over his tummy or swamps him. This one just fits him. I ordered his usual size.

Sandra W., Bromyard

5

It keeps its shape

This is where every jumper I have ever bought him has let me down. By the second month the cuffs have gone baggy, the hem has dropped and it looks tired. The boutique says this one holds its shape and stays crisp after repeated wear, and so far that is exactly what it has done. The cuffs are still neat round his wrists, the collar still stands up, and it folds up on the kitchen table looking the way it did the morning it came.

Folded on our kitchen table after weeks of wear. Collar up, cuffs neat. I checked.

★★★★★

He has worn it most days since it came and it still looks new. The cuffs have not gone baggy, which is a first in this house.

Pauline R., Leominster

6

It goes with what he already owns, in eight colours

With Brian, this is the whole battle. He will not wear anything that means buying something else to go with it. The Thomas goes with his jeans for the match, with his good trousers for church, and over a shirt for anything smarter, so there was nothing else to buy. It comes in eight colours, blue, grey, black, white, beige, green, purple and pink, and in sizes from small, UK 36/38, right up to 3XL, UK 46/48. I went back for the grey. Irene tells me the green is next on her list.

Match day. Flask, cap, keys, jumper. He is ready before I am now.

★★★★★

Bought the grey for his birthday and he wears it with jeans and with his suit trousers. Now he has asked for the green one as well.

Valerie D., Kington

The Thomas, against the jumpers he has been making do with

You can carry on buying him jumpers that are either smart or comfortable and never both, like I did for forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

The Thomas is £28.95, down from £58.00. Every colour and every size is the same price.

I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that it is in the sale while the first of the autumn stock goes, and once a colour sells through in a size, that one is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have spent more than £58.00 over the years on jumpers for Brian that went to the charity shop inside a twelvemonth, so £28.95 for one he actually reaches for made it an easy yes.

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 people 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 wives’ words.

If your husband’s jumpers either strain across the middle or hang off him by Christmas, or he has quietly stopped wearing anything you buy him, this is where I would start. Have a look at the colours before his size goes, because the first autumn stock will not wait. And if you ever see a man two rows in front of you at Headingley looking smarter than anybody has a right to in the drizzle, you will know where I got the idea.

Pat

THE THOMAS ZIP-NECK JUMPER

★★★★☆ 4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

£58.00 £28.95

• Short zip at the neck with a stand-up collar
• Pulls on over the head, no buttons
• Tailored fit, not tight or restrictive
• Soft, smooth and breathable
• Holds its shape after repeated wear
• Eight colours, sizes S (UK 36/38) to 3XL (UK 46/48)
• Free UK delivery

See If His Size Is Still In Stock

Sale on now. The first autumn stock is already going.