A Letter From Vivian: The Quilted Jackets
A letter from the founder
She has bought the same plain jacket four times, in four slightly different shades of the same nothing.
On the six things I looked for before these came into the shop, how they compare to the jacket you keep replacing, and why every one of them is $69.95 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.
Nearly every woman who comes through my door owns a jacket she has bought more than once. Not the same jacket — the same idea of a jacket. Black, or navy, or beige. She wears one out and replaces it with something almost identical, and if you laid all four of them on a table she would have trouble putting them in the order she bought them.
There are two kinds on offer and she knows both. There is the plain one, which is safe precisely because it disappears, and asks nothing of her. And there is the interesting one, which she takes off the rail and holds up and likes — and then puts back, because she cannot picture the occasion where she would wear it.
So she buys the beige one again. And what she is really paying for is the absence of a decision.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
This is a rail of sixteen jackets built on one refusal — that the safe choice has to be the empty one. There were six things I looked for.
Quilted through, so the warmth is air and not weight
These are quilted the whole way through — two layers with padding between them, sewn in the long onion pattern you can see here. That is not decoration. Quilting works by trapping air in the channels, and air is what makes something warm without making it heavy, which is why a woman can wear one of these all afternoon and never feel she is carrying it. They breathe, too. This is the layer for the part of the year when a coat is far too much and a sweater is not enough.
“The Kaia is just lovely with jeans. Comfortable and light enough that I don’t feel bundled up. I’ve been keeping it by the front door.”
Nancy T., BoiseThe parts nobody photographs, which are the parts that fail
Lay one open and this is what I was checking. A stand collar that folds back on itself, so it sits up at the neck in a wind and lies flat when she does not want it. Antique brass snaps running top to hem rather than a zip, because a zip is the first thing to catch and the last thing anybody repairs. Welt pockets set into the seam at the hip — not patch pockets stuck on the outside, which sag within a season. Every raw edge bound in navy. And a quilted cream lining, so the inside is finished rather than merely covered.
“I like the slightly old-fashioned look of the flowers on this Kaia jacket. Reminds me of the pretty things my mother used to choose, but it still feels like something I’d wear now. The quilting is soft, too.”
Janet S., PittsburghSixteen of them, and two quite different ideas of a flower
Some of these carry a placed print — one painted bouquet arranged across the garment, climbing the back and up over a shoulder, which is why the Amaya reads as a picture rather than as a pattern. Others are an all-over print, the flowers repeating quietly across the whole thing, which is the easier one to wear if she is nervous. I stocked both deliberately. A woman who wants to be noticed and a woman who wants to look nice are asking me for two different jackets, and both of them are right.
“I ordered Kaia and Niva because I kept going back and forth between the two. Glad I did. Most of my tops are plain, so either jacket gives me a little something extra without having to rethink my whole outfit.”
Diane M., Rochester“Bought two jackets, one for me and one for my sister’s birthday. We picked different floral prints, which is probably a good thing since we go so many places together. She called after opening hers and wanted to know where I’d found it.”
Patricia G., LouisvilleCut with a sweater already accounted for
A jacket that fits over a blouse and nothing else is a jacket for one week of the year. These are drafted with room through the shoulder, the upper arm and the middle, so a sweater goes underneath without anything pulling across the back when she reaches for her seatbelt. And because the warmth is in the quilting rather than in bulk, that extra room does not turn her into a parcel. It sits at the hip, and it hangs off the shoulder rather than resting on it.
“I wanted a little room for a layer underneath, and the Niva works nicely for that. Doesn’t feel heavy on my shoulders either. A good everyday jacket for me.”
Marlene W., SalemFlowers are far easier to wear than she has been told
This is the objection I hear most and it is the one with the least behind it. A woman thinks a floral jacket has to be built around, that it needs the right blouse and the right everything else. It is the opposite. Because the jacket is doing all of the work, the rule is to keep every other thing plain — a plain top, the jeans she already owns, and she is finished. It is far less effort than the outfit she assembles around the beige one, and it is the reason these end up living by the front door.
“Started with the Kaia and later ordered the Freya. I used to buy the same plain jackets over and over, so these were a bit of a change for me. Turns out flowers aren’t hard to wear at all. I just keep everything else simple. My daughter noticed the change before my husband did, naturally.”
Teresa B., WichitaThey wash at home
I will not stock a jacket a woman has to protect. These go in the machine on a gentle cycle and then hang up to dry rather than going in the tumble dryer — no dry cleaner, nothing else to think about, which is all quilting asks of anybody. A jacket that has to be taken somewhere to be cleaned becomes a jacket she saves, and a jacket she saves is a jacket she does not wear. This is one she can put on to go to the grocery store on a Tuesday.
“The pink floral print on the Freya caught my eye right away. Wore it to lunch with a white top and my usual jeans. Very pleased.”
Cynthia R., CharlestonThese, against the jacket you keep replacing
| The fourth beige one | These | |
|---|---|---|
| The front | Nothing, on purpose | Sixteen prints, placed and all-over |
| Warmth | Bulk, or a thin shell that does nothing | Quilted through — air, not weight |
| Fastening | A zip, and it catches by spring | Brass snaps, collar to hem |
| Pockets | Patch pockets that sag | Welt pockets set into the seam |
| Care | Dry clean, so it waits in the closet | Machine on gentle, hung to dry |
I refuse to sell a woman the same empty jacket for the fifth time. That is the whole reason this rail is in the shop.
Why we’re clearing them now
These came in at $199.95 each, which is what a quilted jacket finished this way — bound edges, a lined body, snaps rather than a zip — 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 the whole rail is going out at $69.95.
And I would rather they went now, in the weeks when this is exactly the right weight of thing to pick up on the way out of the door, than sit in the stockroom until spring. There are only so many of each size in each print, and when they go they are gone.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$199.95$69.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 65%
- Quilted through — warmth from air, not weight
- A fold-back stand collar and antique brass snaps
- Welt pockets set into the seam at the hip
- Bound edges and a quilted cream lining
- Sixteen prints · sizes S to 3XL, and two of them run to 5XL
- Machine wash on gentle, hung to dry · no dry cleaning
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every print the same price · while sizes last
A woman told me once that she had reached an age where she was mostly furniture. She said it lightly, the way you do.
I have thought about it for years. She was not asking to be looked at. She was asking to still be somebody who chooses things, rather than somebody who replaces them.
Go and have a look at the rail, and pick the one you keep coming back to.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE VIVIAN’S QUILTED JACKETS — $69.95 →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.