Real stories · Too good to save for best

My good coat came out four times a year — this one works every day

One coat, smart enough for best, worn every single day — that's what this turned out to be. I'm 67, and like most women my age I owned two coats: the 'good' one, saved for best and worn four times a year, and the everyday one, worn constantly and fit for nothing. The good coat mostly lived on a hanger, deprecating.

What I wanted was a coat too useful to save for best.

Then I found the Velarienne from a British label called York Boutique — a tailored mid-length coat in a flecked black-and-white, with a neat notch lapel and a single button. One lovely colourway, and that's the one I have.

The fleck is the clever bit. Across a room it reads as a proper dressy coat — which is why it passes at a christening without comment — but up close it's easy-going, so it doesn't look overdressed over jeans at the greengrocer's. The tailored cut is genuinely flattering, the mid-length covers what a jacket doesn't, and it shields the wind and cold properly. One coat, both jobs.

Tailored, mid-length, in a flecked black-and-white that reads dressy across a room and easy-going up close — which is why it does the church hall and the Tuesday shop in the same week.

It was £49.95, half the usual £100, and the sums did themselves: my old 'good' coat cost more and came out four times a year; this one has been out every day since it arrived. I did check the sending-back business — a fortnight, free delivery — but it was never in danger.

It has since done a church coffee morning, five ordinary errand runs and one birthday dinner, all in the same seven days, and at the dinner my daughter asked if it was new. 'Newish,' I said, with the confidence of a woman who's already worn it to the tip.

If your good coat also lives on a hanger, do have a look. The Velarienne is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 180 women, it comes in the one flecked colourway, in UK sizes 8/10 to 20/22 — and at half price it goes quickly.