Real stories · The present that actually gets worn

My husband is impossible to buy for — this polo is the first present in years he's worn until I've had to wash it twice a week

A present my husband would actually wear — that's all I wanted this year. Malcolm is 68 and impossible to buy for: he has everything he needs and wants nothing, and whatever jumper I choose disappears into the wardrobe 'for best' and is never seen again. Meanwhile he lives in the same two washed-out t-shirts, which is a look, certainly, just not one I'd send him to the pub in.

What I wanted was something in between: not a stiff shirt he'd save for funerals, not another t-shirt, but something he'd reach for himself.

Then I found the Dareven from a British label called York Boutique — a casual long-sleeve polo, and I chose the blue, which is the kind of blue that goes with every pair of trousers he owns.

The trick is the collar. It's a proper button-down polo collar, so from across the room he looks dressed — but the rest of it is soft and relaxed, cut with a breathable blend and room to move, so it feels like the t-shirts he refuses to give up. Long sleeves make it right for our weather ten months of the year, and it works under a jacket when the pub garden turns chilly. He put it on the morning he unwrapped it, and that was that.

Smart enough for the collar to do the work, soft enough that he forgets he's wearing it. He has it on for the crossword, the garden and the pub — and for once he looks dressed rather than 'comfortable'.

It has become the thing he wears: the crossword in his chair, pottering in the garden, Sunday lunch with our daughter. Our neighbour asked him if he'd 'smartened up' — Malcolm claimed he'd always dressed like this, which is the surest sign a present has succeeded.

It was £34.95 in the sale, half the usual £70. I'd checked before ordering that I could send it back if the fit was off — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free — so there was nothing lost by trying. It comes in ten colours and in sizes from XS to 5XL, so there's a fit for every shape of husband.

If you also have a man who lives in worn-out t-shirts and refuses all improvement, do treat yourself — and him — to a look. The Dareven is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 240 buyers, it's £34.95 in the sale instead of £70 — half price — and the middle sizes always seem to go first.