A note from Leya · The colour I'd forgotten
At 61, I found the brown blazer I didn't know I'd been missing
A blazer that's smart AND easy to wear. I'd stopped looking for one. I'm 61, and every blazer I've owned was navy or black, stiff across the shoulders, and only really comfortable when I was standing still. Brown left my wardrobe sometime in the nineties, and I never quite noticed it go.
What I wanted was one jacket that made a plain outfit look finished, without feeling as though I was off to a meeting.
Then I found the Cristina from Susan and Kate London, a British label started by two sisters. It's a vintage-style blazer in a warm brown, finished with contrast trim along the edges.
The trim is what makes it. It gives the jacket a bit of character without shouting, so a white blouse and jeans suddenly look put together. There's proper room through the shoulders and sleeves, so I can drive, carry the shopping or reach across the table without feeling the seams. And it finishes just above the hip, which is the length that suits most of us best. Over jeans on a Saturday or with black trousers for lunch out, it looks right both ways.
Smart enough for lunch out, easy enough for every day, and a colour I'd forgotten I loved.
It has done lunch with my old colleagues, an afternoon at a gallery with my sister and my granddaughter's school play, and I've had more comments on it than on anything I've bought in years. A woman at the next table asked where it was from, and my sister said brown suits me far better than black ever did.
It was £39.95 in the sale instead of £120, which felt almost too good for a blazer. Delivery is free, I could send it back within 30 days if it wasn't right, and it comes in UK sizes 6 to 18. If you're between sizes they suggest going up one, which is what I did.
If your blazers are also all navy, all black and all a little stiff, do have a look. The Cristina is rated 4.8 out of 5 by more than 300 women, it's £39.95 in the Autumn Sale instead of £120, and the middle sizes always seem to go first.
Cristina | Vintage Brown Blazer
£120.00 £39.95· Save 66%
- Warm brown with vintage-inspired contrast trim
- Room through the shoulders and sleeves
- Polished shape from morning to evening
- Finishes just above the hip
- UK sizes 6 to 18
Sale — while sizes last.
Leya Whitmore is 61 and lives in Guildford with a labrador. She is not a fashion writer.
Susan and Kate London · Free UK delivery · 30 day returns