Real stories · The coat that gave my waist back

Every winter coat turns me into a duvet with legs — this one remembered I have a waist

A coat with my waist still in it — and it's red. I'm 67, and every winter the same thing happens: the temperature drops, the coats come out, and every woman in York quietly becomes a duvet with legs. Warm, yes. A shape? Gone till March.

What I wanted was a winter coat that remembered there's a person in it.

Then I found the Mariviannea from a British label called York Boutique — a belted coat in proper pillar-box red with smart black piping along the collar and cuffs, and a lapel that sits like a good jacket's. I chose the red; there's green, black and khaki for the sensible.

The belt is the whole argument. It ties at the waist and gives you your shape back — which is why the coat reads elegant instead of upholstered — while the lapel collar and the black piping do the smartening. It's warm, it holds its shape, and it dresses up for an evening or down for the school run without complaint.

A belt that ties at the waist and a proper lapel collar — which is why it reads elegant instead of upholstered — in a red with black piping that stands out cheerfully on a grey street.

It was £39.95, which is where I usually hesitate — except I've paid more than that, several times, for coats that made me shapeless. Half the usual £80, a fortnight to send it back, free delivery. The duvet years are over.

It has since done a school pickup, two coffee mornings and one anniversary dinner, and at the pickup my granddaughter spotted me across the playground instantly — 'you're the red one, Granny' — which I have decided is the finest compliment of the season. Sandra has asked to borrow it. Sandra can get her own.

If your winter coats also erase you from the waist down, do have a look. The Mariviannea is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 220 women, it comes in red, green, black and khaki, in UK sizes 8/10 to 18/20 — and at half price the red goes first.