Real stories · The set that survives the drive

Three hours in the car to my daughter's — and I stepped out looking dressed

An outfit that comes out of a three-hour drive looking exactly as it went in — that's what this set is, and anyone who visits family at a distance knows why it matters. I'm 67, and the winter visits always posed the same problem: dress comfortably for the motorway and arrive looking like a laundry pile, or dress properly and spend three hours being strangled by a waistband at junction 42.

What I wanted was one outfit for both ends of the journey.

Then I found the Valerique from a British label called York Boutique — a soft jersey two-piece in a red-and-grey check: a relaxed top with generous sleeves, and easy trousers with proper patch pockets, both finished with a smart white piping. There's a blue as well.

The jersey is the engineering. It's soft and fluid, so it moves with three hours of sitting instead of fighting them — which is why I stepped out at my daughter's door looking deliberate rather than travelled — while the matching check and that white piping make it read as an OUTFIT, not loungewear. Same clothes for the motorway, the doorstep hug and the Sunday roast.

Soft fluid jersey that moves with the miles, in a matched check with smart white piping — which is why the drive and the doorstep finally get the same outfit.

It was £54.95, and I'll be honest: I paused properly at that. Then I did the sums — two well-made pieces, under £28 each, replacing the travel outfit AND the presentable outfit AND the sitting-around outfit — half the usual £110, worn every single visit. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery finished the argument.

It has since done two visits and one whole weekend — car, roast, board games, the after-lunch walk — without once being changed out of, and it was my daughter who said the quiet part: 'you look smart, Mum. Comfortable smart.' From her, that's the Nobel Prize.

If your family visits also start with the outfit dilemma, do have a look. The Valerique is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 230 women, it comes in red or blue check, in UK sizes 8/10 to 16/18 — and at this price the red goes first.