A Letter From Vivian: The Rhealyn
A letter from the founder
She owns a jacket she likes and a jacket she actually wears, and they have been hanging four feet apart for years.
On the six things that made me choose the Rhealyn, how it compares to what you have been buying, 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.
The place that idea breaks down hardest is the layer she pulls on over everything else. It is the most-worn thing she owns and the least thought about.
There are two kinds waiting for her and she knows both. There is the one built for comfort, and it looks it — the zip-up gone soft and brownish at the cuffs, fine for the yard and not fine for anywhere else. And there is the one that looks right, which is stiff through the shoulders, cold at the neck, and carries a dry clean only label she reads once and then ignores for four years.
So every morning she does the arithmetic and takes the soft one, because at least the soft one does not punish her. And then she is comfortable, and invisible, and a little annoyed about it.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
The Rhealyn is my answer. The quilting on it is stitched — you can run a thumb across the channels — and it closes properly, top to bottom, which is the whole difference between a jacket a woman wears and a jacket she carries. There were six things I would not do without.
The quilting is stitched, not printed on
This is the first thing I check, because it is the first thing anybody fakes. Print a photograph of a quilt onto flat cloth and from six feet away it passes; up close it never does. Here the stitching is structural. There are rings sewn into the sun at the shoulder, a line of quilting running the length of every strip, and a surface that puckers and sits in low relief instead of lying flat. That is why it reads as a made thing rather than as a loud pattern.
“The colors are even prettier together in person. I throw it over a plain top and the whole outfit suddenly looks finished.”
Darlene K., RaleighCotton-modal, so she stops noticing she has it on
The fabric is a soft cotton-modal, quilted through. I chose it because a layer worn over everything is a layer that touches her all day — at the wrist, at the back of the neck, at the collarbone when it is fastened. Modal is what makes cotton fall against a woman instead of standing away from her, and it is what keeps a quilted piece from feeling like a coat she is carrying around. It is warm at eight in the morning and it has not turned into a punishment by two in the afternoon.
“This is exactly the kind of lightweight layer I wanted for days that start cool and warm up by afternoon.”
Janice L., ColumbusIt closes — all the way, with a hood that is lined
An open-front jacket is a decision a woman has to keep making. The wind comes up, she holds it shut with one hand, and the other hand already has the bag in it. This one fastens the whole way and then stays where she put it. The hood is shaped and lined in soft brushed cream cloth rather than sewn on flat so the thing can be called a hoodie, and the pockets take a whole hand, a phone and a set of keys. None of that is glamorous. All of it is the difference between a jacket she wears and a jacket she looks at.
“The hood came in handy on a breezy morning, and I was glad to have the pockets when I went out walking.”
Marsha B., SavannahCheerful is not the same as costume
This is the one I thought hardest about. Color this bright can tip into fancy dress, and a woman who has spent fifteen years in neutrals can spot that coming from across a room. What keeps the Rhealyn on the right side of the line is that it is built out of patchwork — strips and blocks and a stitched sun, which is the language of a quilt and not of a novelty print. And because it carries orange, purple, green, blue and gold all at once, it has already made its peace with everything she owns: navy, black, khaki, jeans, the gray top she has had for a decade. It is the loudest thing in her closet and the easiest to place, and those two facts are the same fact.
“There is so much color in the print that I can wear it with navy, black, khaki, or jeans and it works.”
Loretta S., KnoxvilleCut relaxed on purpose — XS through 5XL, one price
A relaxed cut is not a shortcut. It is a decision to fit the woman rather than to ask the woman to fit it. The Rhealyn hangs easy through the middle and sits at the hip, so it gives her room without hanging off her like something borrowed, and it runs XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL and 5XL — nine sizes, every one of them the same price. I have never understood a shop that stops at large and then wonders why half the town buys elsewhere.
“I like the relaxed fit through my middle. It gives me room without looking shapeless or oversized.”
Gloria T., LancasterIt goes in the machine
I will not stock a piece a woman has to protect. This one goes straight in the machine and comes out the same — the color holds, the quilting keeps its loft, and the zipper and the hem stay where they were. No dry cleaner, no hand washing, no hanging it back up because it is too much trouble to wear on an ordinary Tuesday. That is what keeps a jacket at the front of the closet instead of being quietly retired to around-the-house wear by November.
“What surprised me most was how easy it is to wear despite all the color. I’ve reached for it several times already.”
Theresa V., Grand RapidsThe Rhealyn, against what you have been buying
| The usual layer | The Rhealyn | |
|---|---|---|
| Closing | Held shut with one hand, or left open | Fastens top to bottom, both hands free |
| Fabric | Fleece, or a stiff shell | Cotton-modal, quilted through |
| Hood | A flat flap, unlined | Shaped and lined in soft brushed cloth |
| Care | Dry clean only, on a label she ignores | Straight into the machine |
| Sizing | Runs to XL, if you are lucky | XS through 5XL, one price |
I refuse to sell a woman something that asks her to look tired in order to be comfortable. That is the whole reason the Rhealyn is in the shop.
Why we’re clearing it now
The Rhealyn came in at $199.95, which is what a quilted piece made this way costs to make properly. But the boutique turns twenty this year, and my daughter Pearl works beside me now — which is not a thing I let myself expect when I started. We wanted to hand something back to the women who have kept our doors open since 2006, so it is going out at under a third of what it was.
And I would rather it went now than in November. This is the weight of layer that fall is for — the morning has turned and the afternoon has not, and a coat is far too much for either one. There is a single colorway and a single run of it. When the sizes go they are gone, and I would rather they went onto women than back into the stockroom.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$199.95$59.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 70%
- Stitched quilting — a made thing, not a printed one
- Fastens top to bottom, with a soft-lined hood
- Cotton-modal — soft at the wrist and the neck
- Pockets that take a hand, a phone and keys
- Relaxed through the middle — XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every size the same price · while sizes last
I know what a woman means when she tells me she is not really a color person. She usually means she stopped, somewhere along the line, and cannot remember deciding to.
What she is working out in front of this one is not whether she likes it. She likes it. She is working out whether she is still allowed to.
You are. Go and pick your size.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE THE RHEALYN — $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.