A note from Leya
At 67, I found the cardigan that makes me look like I still have somewhere to be
I don't usually write these, and I nearly didn't. But I've found myself saying the same thing to so many women lately that it seemed easier to write it down properly.
Last month I was invited to lunch with the women I used to work with. Eleven of us, the first time in years. I stood in front of my wardrobe for forty minutes and came to an uncomfortable conclusion: everything I owned either said off to the garden centre or off to a funeral. Nothing in between. Nothing that said I was still the woman they used to know.
It isn't that we stop caring. It's that the shops give us two sorts of cardigan. The baggy, bobbly ones that feel lovely and look as though you've given up, and the stiff, buttoned-up ones that look smart and feel like a school uniform. Cosy or smart. Pick one in the morning and live with it all day.
You don't stop wanting to look put together at our age. You just stop finding clothes that let you do it without trying.
Then my sister sent me a photo
She'd spotted it on a woman in the queue at the post office and, being my sister, had followed her outside to ask where it was from. A fine cream stripe, a neat little collar and buttons all the way down. Classic, but not the least bit fusty.
It's the Lesley from Susan and Kate London, a British label started by two sisters, which seemed fitting. The stripe is the clever part. It's been in fashion for as long as I can remember and it never dates, so it looks considered rather than trendy. The little collar lifts it above an ordinary cardigan, and it comes down to the hip, so it covers what I'd rather it covered. I ordered one that evening, a full week before the lunch.
What happened at lunch
I wore it over a plain white top with my good trousers, and before we'd even been shown to our table, two of them had asked where it was from. Then Sue, who ran our office for twenty years and has never handed out a compliment she didn't mean, looked me up and down and said, You haven't changed a bit. I could have hugged her.
It has barely been off since. The library on Tuesdays, coffee with my sister, an afternoon in town where the woman in the bookshop asked about it too. The same cardigan in every one of those places, and it looks right in all of them.
Three things worth knowing
One. The stripe does the work. Put it over a plain top and the whole outfit looks considered. I don't have to think about it, which at seven in the morning is a gift.
Two. The sleeves stay where you put them. Push them up to wash up or peel the potatoes and they stay there, instead of sliding down into the sink. A small thing, but I notice it every single day.
Three. It goes both ways. Over a shirt for lunch out, over a T-shirt for a day at home. It's the only cardigan I own that's right for both.
About the price
I'll be honest, the price is usually the first thing people ask about.
The Lesley is £34.95. It was £70.00.
My first thought was that there had to be a catch, because I've paid more than that for cardigans that went bobbly by Christmas. There isn't one that I've found. Susan and Kate London sell directly, with no shop in the middle taking a cut, and they have a sale on at the moment. Delivery is free, and I checked before ordering that I could send it back within 30 days if the size was wrong. It goes from a UK 8 right up to a 22, and if you're between sizes they suggest going up one.
I read the reviews first, the way I imagine you're doing now. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.6 stars. Then I ordered a second one in green, which my sister says was greedy. She has already asked to borrow it.
What I'd tell you if we were friends
If you and I were sat at that lunch and you asked me, this is what I'd say.
If your wardrobe is full of cardigans that are either too comfortable to be seen in or too smart to relax in, it's worth ten minutes of your evening to have a look. Not because a cardigan will change your life. It won't. But still looking like yourself is a small thing I'd quietly let slip, and I'd rather you didn't let it slip too.
It comes in six colours, from soft neutrals to something more cheerful. The sale is on at the moment, and the middle sizes are always the first to go.
We've booked the next lunch for the spring. I already know what I'm wearing.
Leya
Lesley | The Striped Cardigan
£70.00 £34.95
- A fine cream stripe that never dates
- Small collar that lifts it above a plain cardigan
- Buttons all the way down the front
- Cuffs that stay put when you push them up
- Relaxed, hip-length fit
- Six colours · UK sizes 8 to 22
- Free UK delivery
Sale — while sizes last.
Leya Whitmore is 67 and lives in Guildford with a labrador. She is not a fashion writer.
Susan and Kate London · Free UK delivery · 30 day returns