Real stories · Smart without the stiffness

For years I chose between a stiff blazer and a cardigan that wasn't quite smart enough — this jacket is finally both

Smart without the stiffness — that's what this is. I'm 67, and whenever an invitation arrives with the word 'lunch' or 'occasion' in it, I have the same small crisis. The proper blazers I own were bought for a career I retired from: square shoulders, tight under the arms, the kind of jacket you sit very still in. So I usually give up and wear a cardigan, and spend the afternoon feeling a notch less dressed than everyone else in the room.

What I wanted was a jacket that looked smart and felt like a cardigan.

Then I found the Samantha from Susan and Kate London — a tailored jacket with wide lapels and big sculptural gold-tone buttons, and I chose the green, a bright, cheerful shade that made Graham put his tea down.

The cut is what makes it work. It's shaped to sit close through the body, so it looks properly tailored, but it moves with you — I can reach for my bag, wave at someone across the room and get in and out of the car without that tug across the back. The wide lapels frame the face, which does more for me at 67 than any amount of concealer, and the gold buttons are so sculptural they act as the jewellery. I wear it over a plain top and plain trousers and need nothing else at all.

Tailored enough to look like I made an effort, easy enough to forget I'm wearing a jacket — and the gold buttons do the job a necklace used to.

It was £44.95 in the sale — less than a third of the usual £150, which I checked twice. That's less than I've paid for a blouse I wore once, and with 30 days to send it back and free delivery, the only real question was the colour. The green won.

It has since been to the Yvonne Arnaud with Pauline, my granddaughter's school concert and a lunch where two women I'd never met asked where it was from. Pauline has gone quiet in the way she does when she's about to order one. Graham's verdict was 'very you', which I've decided to take as a compliment. It was £44.95 in the sale, less than a third of the usual £150.

If you also reach for a cardigan because your blazers are too stiff, do have a look. The Samantha is rated 4.8 out of 5 by more than 170 women, it comes in green, in UK sizes 8 to 18 — and at this price, the middle sizes always go first.