Real stories · The dress that stopped hibernating

Every dress I own hibernates all winter — this set lets one out

A dress that finally survives November — cosy on top, pretty underneath — that's what this is. I'm 67, and every October the same small tragedy happens upstairs: my dresses go into hibernation. Too cold on their own, and burying a nice dress under a big cardigan always looked exactly like what it was — an apology.

What I wanted was a dress that could come out in winter and still look like a dress.

Then I found the Serelinna from a British label called York Boutique — a two-piece set: a soft jumper with a generous rolled neck, worn over a delicate darker dress whose pretty hem shows below. Mine is the beige jumper with the brown dress; there's also all-brown, red-with-black and white-on-white.

The cut is the clever bit. The jumper is shaped to sit over the dress with the hem showing on purpose — which is why it reads as one styled outfit rather than a dress buried under an emergency layer. It's soft and breathable with a little give, warm where you want it, and the pieces work separately too — the dress will be back on its own come spring.

The jumper is cut to sit over the dress with the pretty hem showing on purpose — which is why it reads as one styled outfit, not a dress buried under an emergency layer.

It was £44.95, which is exactly the price where I pause — so I went upstairs and counted five perfectly good dresses sitting in hibernation until April. Half the usual £90 to put one of them out of a job, a fortnight to send it back, free delivery. The pause lost.

It has since done a church coffee morning, a bookshop amble and one long Sunday lunch, warm throughout, and at the lunch my daughter lifted the jumper hem, inspected the arrangement and said 'that's cheating'. It is. It's wonderful.

If your dresses also hibernate from October, do have a look. The Serelinna is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 210 women, it comes in four combinations, in UK sizes 8/10 to 18/20 — and at half price the beige-and-brown goes first.