A Letter From Vivian: The Clara
A letter from the founder
A short puffer keeps your top half warm and leaves the rest of you standing in the wind.
On the six things that made me choose the Clara, how it compares to the puffer already hanging by your door, and why it is $89.95 for our twentieth year.
I am Vivian, and I opened this boutique twenty years ago with one idea: that a woman should not have to choose between comfortable and beautiful.
Where it breaks down is the coat you need for eight months of the year, which almost nobody makes.
Because there are two kinds in the closet and you own both. There is the short puffer — light, easy, warm from the shoulders to the hip and then nothing at all, so you stand at the end of the driveway with cold legs telling yourself it is fine. And there is the proper coat, the heavy one, which looks right and sits on your shoulders like a job and has to be sent out to be cleaned, so it gets saved for the days that seem to deserve it.
What is missing is the one in between. Long enough to actually cover you. Light enough for a Tuesday. And good enough that you keep it on when you walk into somewhere.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
The Clara is my answer. It carries on well past the hip, it weighs almost nothing across the shoulders, and the hood comes off when you would rather not have one. There were six things I would not do without.
It is long enough to be worth putting on
This is the whole argument and everything else follows it. A hip-length puffer is a compromise nobody ever agreed to — it warms the half of you that was already warm and abandons the half that gets cold standing still. The Clara runs down past the hip and keeps going, so it covers you where you are actually cold: the lower back, the hips, the tops of the legs. Length is the cheapest warmth there is, and the industry keeps leaving it out because a short coat costs less to make.
“The longer length gives me more coverage than my short puffers, but it still feels surprisingly light when I’m wearing it.”
Marilyn C., NewportThe hood comes off
I would not have taken this jacket without it. A fixed hood decides for you: it sits on your back at dinner, it flattens your hair, and it turns the coat into sportswear whether you wanted that or not. This one unfastens at the collar. Hood on, it is the coat you walk the dog in. Hood off, it is a clean standing collar and it is the coat you wear to meet someone for lunch. That is two coats for the price of the one, which is a genuinely rare thing and the sort of detail a maker only bothers with if they are paying attention elsewhere too.
“I like being able to remove the hood when I want a cleaner look. It makes the jacket feel much more versatile.”
Janice T., RaleighIt is shaped, not a tube
Here is where most long quilted coats fail. They are cut straight down, so a woman puts one on and disappears into a column with a zip up the front. The Clara draws in through the waist and opens again over the hip, so there is a shape to it. The quilted channels run horizontally and get no deeper than they need to be, which keeps the whole thing close instead of inflating it. You can be covered from shoulder to knee and still look like a person of a particular size and shape, rather than like weather equipment.
“The shape is much more flattering than most quilted coats I’ve tried. It follows the body without feeling tight.”
Kathleen M., SavannahLight enough to carry when it warms up
An American fall does the same thing to a woman every year. You leave at eight and it is forty-five degrees. By two it is sixty-eight and you are looking for somewhere to put a coat. A wool coat at that point is a burden you carry for five hours. This one folds down over an arm and stops being a problem, which is the difference between a coat you own and a coat you actually take with you when the morning looks doubtful.
“This is light enough to carry when the afternoon warms up, which is exactly what I wanted for unpredictable fall weather.”
Susan H., AshevilleIt handles all three things at once
Rain, wind and cold rarely turn up one at a time, and most coats are only built for one of them. A wool coat is warm and drinks a shower. A rain shell keeps the water off and lets the cold straight through. The Clara is made to deal with all three together, which is the only useful arrangement, because the morning you get caught out is always the morning it is doing everything at once.
“I wore mine on a windy, drizzly afternoon and stayed comfortable the whole time. It never felt bulky or stiff.”
Donna R., CharlestonSeven colors, nine sizes, one price
Black if you want the one that argues with nothing. Taupe if you want the one that goes with everything, which is not the same thing. Navy for the woman who has always worn navy. And then the pink, the red, the fuchsia and the burgundy, which are there because a long coat is the largest single thing a woman wears and I have never understood why it is expected to be the dullest. Every color runs XS through 5XL, and every size is the same price.
“The pink is cheerful without being too bright. I wear it with jeans and neutral sweaters and it instantly lifts the outfit.”
Elaine B., Richmond“I bought the taupe first and now I’m considering the navy. It’s easy to layer and doesn’t make me feel bundled up.”
Barbara L., GreenvilleThe Clara, against the puffer by your door
| The usual quilted coat | The Clara | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Stops at the hip | Well past the hip, toward the knee |
| Hood | Fixed on, or none at all | Unfastens at the collar |
| Shape | A straight column with a zip | Drawn in at the waist, open over the hip |
| Weight | A burden by two in the afternoon | Folds over an arm and forgotten |
| Color | Black, or a darker black | Seven, and four of them are not neutral |
| Sizing | Stops at XL, if you are lucky | XS through 5XL, one price |
I refuse to sell a woman a coat that covers half of her and calls it done. That is the whole reason the Clara is in the shop.
Why we’re clearing it now
The Clara came in at $239.95, and a long coat is priced that way for a simple reason — there is a great deal more of it, and every extra inch is more cloth, more stitching and more that can be got wrong. But the shop turns twenty this year, and my daughter Pearl is at the counter beside me most days now, which is not something I permitted myself to plan on in 2006. We wanted to mark it properly, so it is going out at a little over a third of what it was.
I will give you the honest reasoning. A long coat is the thing a woman wears over everything else she owns, so it is the piece she is slowest to replace and the one she keeps for years. If the first long coat you buy from us is the one you reach for every morning for the next five winters, I consider that money well spent at $89.95.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$239.95$89.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 63%
- Long — well past the hip, toward the knee
- A hood that unfastens at the collar
- Drawn in at the waist rather than cut straight
- Light enough to carry when the day warms up
- Built for rain, wind and cold together
- Seven colors · sizes XS through 5XL, one price
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every color and size the same price · while sizes last
A woman tries on a long coat differently from anything else in the shop. She puts it on, and then she turns sideways to the mirror, and then she goes quiet.
What she is checking is not whether it suits her. It is whether she is allowed to take up that much room.
She is. Go and pick your color.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE THE CLARA — $89.95 →This is a personal letter from the founder of Vivian & Pearl Newport. Customer reviews are quoted as written. · US family brand since 2006 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.