Real stories · The puffer that doesn't wear you

Puffer jackets kept me warm and made me disappear — this one gave me my shape back

The puffer that doesn't wear you — that's what this one is. I'm 67, and I surrendered to puffer jackets years ago because nothing else deals with a Yorkshire January. But the surrender came with a cost: from October to March, I had no shape. Warm, yes. Also roughly spherical. There are winter photographs of me I refuse to acknowledge.

What I wanted was puffer warmth that let me keep my outline.

Then I found the Lioravelle from a British label called York Boutique — an elegant puffer, and I chose the black, which is the most flattering thing padding can do.

The difference is in the quilting. The stitched lines are contoured — they curve in at the waist instead of running straight past it like scaffolding — which is why the jacket follows your shape while the insulation does the warming: light padding that holds the heat without the bulk. It's mid-thigh length, so the cold can't sneak in at the hip; the outside shrugs off wind and light rain; and there's a hood and adjustable cuffs for the days the forecast lies. Warm as the spherical one. Looks nothing like it.

The quilting is contoured — the lines curve in at the waist instead of running straight past it — which is why you stay properly warm and still look like a woman rather than a well-insulated appliance.

It's the priciest thing I've recommended in a while — £49.95 — and I hovered accordingly. Then I checked the sale board: half the usual £100, and with a fortnight to send it back and free delivery, hovering was free.

It has since done the Christmas market run, two damp dog walks and a lunch in town, and a photograph exists from Saturday in which I am both visibly warm and visibly a person with a waist. Progress. It was £49.95 in the sale, half the usual £100.

If you also surrendered your outline to the cold years ago, do have a look. The Lioravelle is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 220 women, it comes in black, grey, khaki, navy and red, in UK sizes 8/10 to 18/20 — and at half price, the black never sits around.