A Letter From Vivian: The Amaya
A letter from the founder
Every jacket on your hooks was bought for a reason. Not one of them was bought because you liked looking at it.
On the six things that made me choose the Amaya, how it compares to the jackets you already own, and why it is $79.95 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.
Go and look at the hooks by your door.
There is the waterproof one. There is the warm one. There is the one that packs down small, bought for a trip you took in 2019. And there is the navy one, which you bought because it goes with everything, and which does go with everything.
Every single one of them was bought for a reason, and every reason was a good one. That is precisely the problem. A thing bought for a reason is a tool, and nobody looks forward to a tool. You do not take a hammer off a hook and think, well, there you are.
So a woman puts on the fourth sensible jacket of her life on a cold Tuesday, and something in her goes very slightly flat, and she tells herself she is being silly. She is not being silly. She is noticing something true.
There is a second thing that has gone wrong, and it happened so gradually that nobody objected. Somewhere in the last twenty years, comfortable stopped meaning comfortable and started meaning shapeless. As though the only way to let a woman be at ease in a garment were to remove all the shape from it and hope she did not mind.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
The Amaya is my answer. There were six things I would not do without.
The flowers are placed, not repeated
This is the decision the whole jacket rests on, and it is the one almost nobody makes. A floral is normally a tile — one arrangement, repeated until it has filled the shape, and it does not matter where on the garment any part of it lands. Here the flowers rise out of the lower front and travel up and across, spilling onto one sleeve and leaving the other side deep navy and quiet. Somebody decided where each bloom would sit. It is composed, the way a painting is composed, which is why it reads as artwork on a jacket rather than as patterned cloth cut into a jacket shape.
“The floral print reminds me of a jacket I loved years ago. Wore this with a cream blouse and jeans yesterday. Such a pretty combination.”
Sandra J., RichmondIt has shape, and it is still comfortable
I said comfortable had stopped meaning comfortable, and here is the correction. The Amaya is tailored. It comes in a little through the body and it holds that line, the collar stands up instead of flopping, and every edge is bound in navy so nothing goes soft at the hem after a month. You can move in it perfectly well. But it does not hang off you, and it does not ask to be forgiven. A woman is allowed to be at ease and still look like she is wearing something that was cut for her.
“What I like most is that it has some shape to it. I enjoy comfortable clothes, but I still want my jackets to look neat. This strikes a good balance for me.”
Cheryl F., LexingtonThe warmth is in the quilting, so there is no bulk to it
The quilting runs in long onion shapes across the whole jacket, and it is those channels holding air that do the work. It is a real difference and you feel it about an hour in, because weight on the shoulders is what tires a woman out by the afternoon — not cold. So this is the layer for the months that cannot decide: the walk that starts cool and warms up, the morning that needs something and does not need a coat. Lightweight and genuinely warm are usually a choice. Quilting is the one honest way round it.
“Light enough that I don't feel bundled up, but the quilting gives it a cozy feel. A nice layer for those cool afternoons.”
Judy M., SpokaneOne jacket for both halves of a day
This is the test I apply to everything on the rail, and very little passes it. Most jackets belong to one half of the day: the casual one cannot come to dinner, the good one cannot come to the shops. The Amaya goes over a plain dress for church and over jeans for the pharmacy, and neither of those is a compromise, because the artwork does the dressing up and the quilting does the being comfortable. If you are packing for three days and want to take one jacket, this is the sort of thing that argument is about.
“Packed this for a few days visiting a friend. I wanted one jacket that would work for a casual lunch and dinner out, and this did both. The quilted padding feels soft, and it doesn't have the bulk of my heavier jackets. Glad I brought it.”
Marcia R., Boise“Lovely floral pattern. I wore mine over a plain dress to church and felt very comfortable in it.”
Doris K., GreenvilleBrass snaps, a stand collar, and a lining somebody thought about
The small things are how you tell. It fastens with brass snaps rather than a zip, which is quieter and easier with cold hands and does not catch on a scarf. The collar stands, so it covers the back of your neck when the wind gets round to it. There are two pockets set into the side seams. And the inside is a cream quilted lining, finished properly, which almost nobody would have blamed the maker for skipping because it is the part no one is supposed to see. That is exactly why I take it as a signal about everything else I cannot see.
Nine sizes, an honest wash, and no occasion required
It runs 2XS, XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL and 4XL — nine sizes, and the same price in every one of them. I will point out that it starts at 2XS, which almost nothing does. Shops that stop at XL get talked about, quite rightly, but a small woman has spent just as long having her jacket sleeves taken up. And the care is straightforward, which matters for a piece like this: it goes in the machine on a cool wash, and then it wants hanging up rather than tumbling. Quilting and a tumble dryer are not friends.
“My closet has plenty of practical jackets. I chose this one because I actually liked looking at it! The vintage feel is right up my alley, and the lightweight warmth makes it easy to reach for when the weather turns a little cool.”
Lucille S., Cincinnati“I bought the Amaya to wear to a Sunday brunch and have already worn it for several less exciting occasions, including picking up prescriptions. Why save the pretty things? It looks just as nice with my everyday pants.”
Gretchen B., Ann ArborThe Amaya, against the jackets on your hooks
| The usual everyday jacket | The Amaya | |
|---|---|---|
| Why you bought it | For a reason — waterproof, warm, packs small | Because you liked looking at it |
| The pattern | A repeat, or nothing at all | A painting placed across one side |
| Shape | Comfortable, and shapeless with it | Comfortable, and it still holds a line |
| Warmth | Bulk on the shoulders by four o’clock | Quilted channels that hold air |
| Inside | A plain lining nobody was meant to see | Cream quilting, piped at every edge |
| Sizing | Stops at XL, if you are lucky | 2XS through 4XL, one price |
I refuse to sell a woman only the jackets she can justify. That is the whole reason the Amaya is in the store.
Why we’re clearing it now
The Amaya hangs at $399.95 on the rail, which is what a jacket finished this way goes for: artwork placed rather than repeated, quilting run across the whole body, binding on every edge, brass snaps, and a lining nobody was going to check. I am not going to stand here and tell you that is a small amount of money. But the store turns twenty this year, and my daughter Pearl is beside me at the counter most days now, which is not something I let myself count on in 2006. We wanted to mark it by handing something back to the women who kept our door open, so the Amaya is going out at a fifth of that.
I will give you the honest reasoning too. This is the layer for the months that cannot make up their mind, which in this part of the world is most of them. It will be off the hook and back on it more often than anything else you own between now and April. If it turns out to be that, then $79.95 was never the point.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$399.95$79.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 80%
- A painted floral placed across one side, not a repeat
- Onion quilting across the whole jacket — warmth without the bulk
- Tailored through the body, so it holds a line
- Brass snap fastening and a stand collar
- A cream quilted lining, with binding at every edge
- Two pockets set into the side seams
- Machine wash cool · do not tumble dry · air dry
- 2XS, XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL · every size the same price
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every size the same price · while sizes last
Twenty years behind this counter, and there is a small thing I watch for that nobody knows they are doing.
A woman takes a sensible jacket off the rail and she looks at the label, or the price, or the inside of the cuff. She is checking it. That is what you do with a tool.
She takes this one off the rail and she just looks at it. Holds it out at arm's length and looks at it, the way you look at something hanging on a wall.
That is the whole difference, and it is worth more than any of the reasons.
Go find your size.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE THE AMAYA — $79.95 →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.