Real stories · The jacket that retired my umbrella

I've lost eleven umbrellas in ten years — this jacket made the twelfth unnecessary

The jacket that retired my umbrella — that's what this is. I'm 67, and my relationship with umbrellas has been eleven short tragedies in ten years: left on buses, sacrificed to gusts outside the Minster, one simply never seen again after a coffee morning. Meanwhile the forecast in York is 'probably', every single day.

What I wanted was to stop carrying the answer to drizzle and start wearing it.

Then I found the Dorvessa from a British label called York Boutique — a wonderfully soft teddy-style hooded jacket in brown, deep-pile and warm, with a front zip and knitted cuffs. There's black, white, beige and grey as well.

The hood does the job my umbrellas kept failing at. Drizzle starts, hood up, carry on — nothing to hold, nothing to lose, both hands free for the shopping — which is why the twelfth umbrella was never bought. And the rest of the jacket earns its place: the teddy pile is ridiculously soft and properly warm, the relaxed cut goes over any jumper without a struggle, and the zip means it's on and off in a second.

Drizzle starts, hood up, carry on — nothing to hold, nothing to leave on the bus — and the teddy pile underneath is the softest thing on the coat rack by a mile.

It was £39.95 — exactly the sort of number I hover at — until I totted up the value of umbrellas I've donated to public transport over the years and realised losing things had cost me more. Half the usual £80, a fortnight to send it back, free delivery. Nothing to lose. For once.

It has since done a drizzly market morning, two school pickups and one sudden shower outside the library that would absolutely have claimed umbrella number twelve. Hood up, home warm, quietly triumphant. It was £39.95 in the sale, half the usual £80.

If you also fund the umbrella industry, do have a look. The Dorvessa is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 250 women, it comes in brown, black, white, beige and grey, in UK sizes 6/8 to 18/20 — and at half price the brown goes first.