A Letter From Vivian: The Mira
A letter from the founder
Twenty years on this harbor, and I had never once seen the ocean put onto a sweatshirt properly.
On the six things that made me choose the Mira, how it compares to the sweatshirt already in your drawer, and why it is $59.95 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.
I have kept a shop on a harbor for two decades, and in that time I have been offered a great deal of clothing that claims to be about the sea. Almost all of it is a small embroidered anchor on a navy stripe. A gesture toward the idea, without ever showing you the thing itself.
And the two kinds never change. There is the plain one — comfortable, unobjectionable, completely silent. And there is the themed one, which is really a costume, with rope and anchors and a word across the chest, and no woman I know wants to stand in a checkout line explaining her sweatshirt.
What nobody makes is the third thing. An actual picture. Something worth looking at, on a garment you would genuinely wear to go and do the shopping.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
The Mira is my answer. It is a sunrise over open water, sewn rather than printed, and the waves carry on down both sleeves. There were six things I would not do without.
Every line of it is stitched
Look at the close-ups and you will see what I saw. The sun is worked in concentric rings that stand up off the surface. The clouds are outlined in stitch. The waves curl into spirals, each one sewn round on itself, and the water behind them is quilted in long lines that run the way water runs. None of this is a photograph of a quilt printed on fleece, which is what nearly every colorful sweatshirt turns out to be when it reaches you. It is also where the warmth comes from, because quilting holds air.
“The quilted texture gives the whole design so much depth. It looks more like something handmade than an ordinary sweatshirt.”
Judith P., AshevilleThe colors are in an order, which is why it is not chaos
This is the decision I would have missed twenty years ago. Look at where the colors sit. Everything above the horizon is warm — the yellows, the oranges, the reds and pinks of a sky at dawn. Everything below it is cool — the greens, the teals, the purples of water. Nothing wanders across that line. So although there is a great deal of color in this garment, it is not scattered; it is doing what a sky does above what a sea does, and your eye reads it as one thing rather than as noise. That is the whole difference between a woman wearing a scene and a woman wearing a riot, and it is why it sits perfectly happily above a pair of plain jeans.
“The sun and waves are even prettier in person. I can wear plain jeans underneath and still feel like I made an effort.”
Gloria S., MontereyA pouch that takes both hands at once
Not two separate slits at the hip, which only ever hold one hand each and drag the front out of shape. A single pouch across the front, so both hands go in together. That matters more as the years go on than anyone admits: it is where your hands want to be when you are standing outside talking to a neighbour, and it is warmer than any pocket you have to keep separate.
The hood is doing a job, not decorating the back
Half the hoods sold on garments like this are a flat panel that exists so the word can appear on the label. This one is shaped, and it is quilted right through like the rest of the garment rather than left as a single thin layer, so it holds its form instead of collapsing between your shoulders. The picture carries over it too — the sky does not stop at the neckline. On this coast the wind arrives without any warning at all, and a hood that goes up in three seconds is worth more than a scarf you have to go back inside for.
“I love having the hood when the breeze picks up. It adds warmth around my neck without needing another layer.”
Theresa K., PortlandEasy through the middle, and long enough at the wrist
Two things that have to be true together, and usually only one of them is. It hangs from the shoulder rather than sitting on the body, so it is easy across the middle and does not cling anywhere you would rather it did not. And the sleeves run the whole way to the wrist, because the forearm is the first place a woman feels the cold and the last place she wants to be looked at. Nine sizes, XS through 5XL, every one at the same price.
“The relaxed fit gives me plenty of room through the middle without swallowing me up. It feels comfortable from morning to evening.”
Maureen D., Charleston“The sleeves cover me right to the wrist and the body doesn’t cling anywhere. That combination makes this one very easy to reach for.”
Margaret F., RaleighBright, and still nothing you have to explain
I sell to women who stopped buying color somewhere around their fiftieth birthday and have never quite been able to say why. What I have watched, over and over, is that the objection is never really the color. It is the fear of looking like you are trying. The Mira gets past that because it is a picture of something — the sun, the water, the weather — rather than a decoration for its own sake. Nobody asks a woman to justify a sunrise.
“I usually avoid bright clothing, but the mix of purple, turquoise, and orange is surprisingly easy to wear with denim.”
Catherine W., Richmond“The colors are cheerful without looking childish. I wore it to lunch and had two women ask me where I got it.”
Beverly A., SavannahThe Mira, against the one already in the drawer
| The usual sweatshirt | The Mira | |
|---|---|---|
| The front | A logo, a slogan, or nothing | A sunrise over water, worked in stitch |
| Warmth | Flat fleece, warm by thickness | Sewn quilting that holds air |
| Color | Scattered, or none at all | Warm above the horizon, cool below it |
| Two slits, one hand each | One pouch, both hands together | |
| Sleeves | Short, or loose at the wrist | Full length, right to the wrist |
| Sizing | Stops at XL, if you are lucky | XS through 5XL, one price |
I refuse to accept that the only way a woman is allowed to mention the sea is a half-inch anchor over her heart. That is the whole reason the Mira is in the shop.
Why we’re clearing it now
The Mira came in at $174.95. Quilting a whole garment line by line takes as long as it takes, and there is no clever way around that — which is what the original number was paying for. But the shop reaches twenty this year, and Pearl is here beside me now, which in 2006 I would not have dared to plan on. We wanted to mark it by giving something back to the women who kept the door open, so it goes out at a little over a third.
Here is the honest arithmetic behind that. A woman buys one of these, wears it on a Saturday, and somebody stops her about it before lunchtime. That has happened often enough in this shop that I no longer treat it as luck. I would rather she found that out at $59.95.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$174.95$59.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 66%
- A sunrise over water, sewn rather than printed
- Waves carrying down both sleeves
- A deep, quilted hood that the picture carries over
- One front pouch that takes both hands
- Full-length sleeves, easy through the middle
- Sizes XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL — one price
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every size the same price · while sizes last
There is a thing women do in this shop that I have never seen a man do. She holds a bright thing up against herself, looks in the glass, and then looks past her own shoulder to see who else is in the room.
She is not checking whether it suits her. She is checking whether she will have to defend it.
She will not. Go and pick your size.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
see the Mira — $59.95 →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.