Real stories · The dress that's secretly a sweatshirt

One zip and I'm dressed — the smart dress that's secretly as comfortable as a sweatshirt

The dress that's secretly a sweatshirt — that's the only honest way to describe it. I'm 67, and my mornings have a familiar stand-off: the comfortable clothes that look like I've given up, versus the put-together clothes that involve three decisions, two layers and something digging in somewhere by ten o'clock.

What I wanted was one garment that ended the stand-off — comfortable AND deliberate, no negotiation.

Then I found the Melviera from a British label called York Boutique — a long-sleeve zip dress, and I chose the grey with its navy striped collar and trims, which looks rather sporty and French, if that's a thing.

The trick is that it's built like your favourite sweatshirt but finished like a dress. The fabric is a soft, breathable blend with that cosy weight to it, which is why it feels like Sunday clothes — while the smart collar, the zip at the neck and the navy striped trims at the cuffs and hem make it read as a chosen, deliberate outfit. The zip is genuinely useful too: up for warmth on the school run, down a touch to soften the neckline for lunch. It falls tidily to the knee, and with white trainers it does errands; with boots and tights it does an actual restaurant.

The collar and the navy trims make it read as a proper, deliberate dress — while the soft sweatshirt-feel fabric means it's the most comfortable thing I own that isn't officially pyjamas.

It has since done four mornings in a row — which no single garment has managed in years — including a coffee with my friend Sandra, who felt the sleeve, narrowed her eyes and said 'this is basically a sweatshirt, isn't it', in the tone of a woman uncovering a scandal. She has since ordered the off-white, so the scandal can't have troubled her much.

I'll be honest, I hovered at the price for a day. But it was £49.95 in the sale — half the usual £99.95 — and I'd checked I could send it back if it looked like loungewear in real life, which you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free. It comes in grey and off-white, in sizes UK 8 to 18.

If your mornings hold the same stand-off, do treat yourself to a look. The Melviera is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 240 women, it's £49.95 in the sale instead of £99.95, and with only two colours the grey always seems to go first.