Real stories · The coat that retired my accessories

Hat, scarf, gloves, hot-water bottle — one coat has made most of the drawer redundant

The coat that made my winter accessories redundant — that's the short version. I'm 67, and leaving the house in winter used to be a checklist: hat, scarf, gloves, and a quiet prayer I hadn't left one of the three in the other coat. Half my hallway drawer existed to fix what my coats couldn't do.

What I wanted was one coat that arrived with the warmth built in.

Then I found the Veliannea from a British label called York Boutique — a long button-up coat in a gorgeous warm pink, plush and soft, with a big collar that stands up generously and deep side pockets. I chose the pink, bravely; there's grey, black, blue and green for the less reckless.

The built-in-ness is the point. The big collar stands up around the neck like a scarf that can't be forgotten on a bus — which is why the actual scarf has stayed in the drawer — the buttons go right up, the deep pockets swallow cold hands whole, and the plush warmth runs all the way down past the knee. One garment, doing the work of four.

A big collar that stands up like a built-in scarf, buttons to the top, deep pockets that swallow cold hands — which is why the hat, scarf and gloves have stayed in the drawer all week.

It was £49.95, half the usual £100, and when I counted what it pensions off — the scarf hunt, the glove hunt, the second trip upstairs for the hat — it seemed cheap at twice the bother. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery, for form's sake.

It has since done a week of school runs, two market mornings and one cold bright walk along the river, all conducted scarfless, hatless and smug. My granddaughter says I look 'like a nice big raspberry'. Malcolm was asked whether he'd lost his wife and answered, correctly, 'she's the pink one'.

If your hallway drawer is also a rescue service for underperforming coats, do have a look. The Veliannea is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 210 women, it comes in five colours, in UK sizes 8/10 to 18/20 — and at half price the pink goes first.