Real stories · The sweatshirt with a thermostat

Every winter shop is a sauna and every street is a fridge — this zip sorts out both

The sweatshirt with a thermostat — that's what this is. I'm 67, and winter is mostly a temperature argument: freezing on the walk into town, boiling within four minutes of entering any shop, then freezing again at the bus stop. Jumpers only have one setting, and it is reliably the wrong one.

What I wanted was a jumper I could adjust without undressing in public.

Then I found the Serelitha from a British label called York Boutique — a sweatshirt in a lovely coffee-and-gold marbled print with soft plain sleeves, and a half-zip with a big silver ring pull. I chose the coffee; there's a blue and a red as well.

The zip is the whole idea. Two inches down in an overheated shop, all the way up at the bus stop — which is why I now cross between saunas and fridges all afternoon without once taking anything off or putting anything on. The ring pull is big enough to find with gloves on, the soft blend is warm without bulk, and the marbled print with its golden veins is far prettier than a plain sweatshirt has any right to be.

Two inches of zip down in the overheated shop, all the way up at the freezing bus stop — one sweatshirt, every temperature, and never once undressing in public.

At £34.95 I hovered briefly — then noted it was half the usual £70, and that with a fortnight to send it back and free delivery, hovering was free.

It has since done a full Saturday of Christmas shopping — six shops, two bus stops, zero cardigan wrestling — and Malcolm has stopped asking why I keep 'fiddling with that zip'. It's called comfort, Malcolm. It was £34.95 in the sale, half the usual £70.

If your winter is also a temperature argument, do have a look. The Serelitha is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 250 women, it comes in coffee, blue and red, in UK sizes 8-10 all the way to 26 — and at half price the coffee goes first.