Real stories · The cardigan doing his blazer's job

Malcolm owns one blazer and resents it — this cardigan now does its job in comfort

The cardigan doing his blazer's job — that's what this is. I'm 67, Malcolm is 68, and he owns exactly one blazer, worn under protest at anything called 'an occasion'. It's stiff, it's warm in all the wrong ways, and by the main course he's rolling his shoulders in it like a man in borrowed armour.

What I wanted was something that says 'made an effort' without making him actually suffer for it.

Then I found the Corven from a British label called York Boutique — a zipped cardigan in a dark grey marled knit with a proper stand collar, ribbed cuffs and pockets. There's a beige, a red and a green as well.

The collar is the clever bit. Zipped to halfway, the knitted stand collar frames a shirt the way a blazer's lapels would — which is why he looks dressed for the occasion while wearing what is, structurally, a jumper. The knit is soft with no stiffness anywhere, the zip means no fiddling with a row of buttons, and over a checked shirt at Sunday lunch he looks like a man who chose his outfit rather than surrendered to it.

A knitted stand collar that frames a shirt the way a blazer would — which is why he looks dressed for the occasion while wearing, structurally, a jumper. The blazer has not been seen since.

It was £34.95 — half the usual £70, less than one dry-clean-and-repair cycle of the resented blazer — and with a fortnight to send it back and free delivery, there was nothing to hesitate over.

It has since done two Sunday lunches, a school concert for the grandchildren and one birthday dinner, all without a single shoulder-roll. Malcolm calls it 'the good zipper', which is his highest honour. It was £34.95 in the sale, half the usual £70.

If your husband also wears his blazer like borrowed armour, do have a look. The Corven is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 210 customers, it comes in grey, beige, red and green, in sizes XS to 2XL — and with Christmas coming, this is exactly the sort of present that actually gets worn.