Real stories · Smart, without the cold legs

Every winter occasion meant a dress, thin tights and frozen legs — this year I wore a trouser suit

Smart for every winter occasion, and warm legs all day — I'd honestly forgotten that combination was allowed. I'm 67, and the cold months used to mean a run of smart occasions in a dress and thin tights: the Christmas lunch, the carol service, a funeral in a freezing churchyard. Cold legs, laddered tights by the second hour, and that shiver you can't hide when you're stood outside a church in the wind.

What I wanted was something properly smart that covered my legs.

Then I found the Seravelle from a British label called York Boutique — a tailored two-piece trouser suit with a single-button blazer. I chose the blue; there's grey, beige, brown, pink and black too.

Trousers instead of tights is the whole secret: my legs are covered from waist to ankle, so the cold stays out. And it's tailored enough to look properly dressed — a slim, structured blazer and trousers that hang well — while being made for all-day comfort and ease of movement, which is why I could stand in a cold churchyard and then sit through a long lunch without wishing I'd worn something else.

A tailored trouser suit — smart enough for any occasion, with my legs covered from waist to ankle — which is why I stayed warm from the churchyard to the pudding.

I'll be honest: at £44.95 I paused. Then I counted the tights I laddered last winter and the occasions I spent shivering — and it's half the usual £90.

It has done a funeral in a bitter wind, a harvest supper in a draughty church hall and a long Sunday lunch at my sister Joan's, and Joan, who wore a dress to the funeral, said I looked 'the warmest person there, and the smartest'. I did check before ordering that I could send it back if the fit was off — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free.

If winter occasions leave you choosing between smart and warm, do have a look. The Seravelle is rated 4.5 out of 5 by more than 180 women, it comes in six colours, in UK sizes 6/8 to 34/36 — and the middle sizes go first.