A Letter From Vivian: Sixteen Quilted Jackets
A letter from the founder
The nicest things in her closet are waiting for an occasion that keeps not arriving.
On the six things I looked for before these came into the shop, how they compare to the jacket you actually wear, and why every one of them is $79.95 for our twentieth year.
A customer wrote to me in the spring and said something I have thought about ever since. She had bought two jackets from us, and what she said was that they felt like things she would actually use — instead of saving them for an occasion that never comes.
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. Her sentence is the reason I am still at it.
Because by a certain age there are two halves to a closet. There is the good half, kept for something: a wedding that got postponed, a lunch that never got arranged, the plastic still on the shoulders. And there is the everyday half, which is what she actually puts on — the beige jacket, the gray one, the one that could not possibly be wrong at the grocery store.
The trouble is that the occasions get further apart every year and the ordinary days keep coming at the same rate they always did. So the nicest things she owns hang there being saved, and the days she actually lives get the beige one.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
This is a rail of sixteen jackets built on one refusal — that a good-looking thing has to be put away for later. 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. That is not decoration. Quilting works by holding air in the channels, and air is what makes a thing 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 as well. This is the weight of jacket for the part of the year when a coat is far too much and a sweater is not enough.
“Soft quilting and a lovely floral print. I’ve been wearing my Niva for errands on cool mornings. Very pleased with it.”
Marcia L., Grand RapidsThe parts nobody photographs, which are the parts that fail
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 would rather it did. Antique brass snaps running top to hem instead of 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 rather than patch pockets stuck on the outside, which sag within a season. Every raw edge bound. And a lining, so the inside is finished rather than merely covered.
“The Kaia makes a plain white shirt look like an outfit. That’s about the amount of effort I want to put into getting dressed most mornings.”
Eileen D., Fort CollinsSixteen of them, because the choosing is half of it
I could not choose for you, so I did not try. Some carry a painted bouquet placed across the front and shoulder. Others are an all-over print, quieter, easier if you are nervous about it. A few are not flowers at all. I stock the range because 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. And I have learned that the deciding is part of the pleasure — more than one customer has told me she spent an evening on it.
“Bought three jackets between my sister and me. We spent half an evening on the phone deciding which prints to get! I kept the Kaia and Freya, and she chose Niva. Fun picking out something together even though we live several states apart.”
Peggy A., Knoxville“Ordered the Niva and Kaia together. I wear mostly solid-colored tops, so I’ve had no trouble finding things to wear with either one. Nice to have a choice besides my old denim jacket.”
Donna E., ColumbusCut 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 comes from the quilting rather than from bulk, that extra room does not turn her into a parcel. They run 2XS through 4XL — nine sizes, and the same nine on every one of the sixteen, so nobody gets sent to a different rail because of the size she takes. One thing I would say across the counter: if you like a thick sweater underneath, take the next size up.
“What I like about the Niva is that I can wear a layer underneath and still feel comfortable. Some jackets pull across my back when I reach for something. This one gives me a bit more room, and the quilting doesn’t feel heavy.”
Cheryl V., OlympiaFlowers are far easier to wear than she has been told
This is the objection I hear most and 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 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 that is exactly why these end up living by the front door.
“The Freya’s pink floral pattern is so pretty. Wore it with jeans to my granddaughter’s birthday lunch and felt nicely dressed without being too dressed up.”
Rosemary K., RichmondIt washes at home, which is the whole point
I will not stock a jacket a woman has to protect, and this is where the two halves of the closet come from in the first place. A thing that must be taken somewhere to be cleaned becomes a thing she saves, and a thing she saves is a thing she does not wear. These go in the machine on a gentle cycle and hang up to dry — no dry cleaner, nothing else to remember. That is the difference between a jacket for occasions and a jacket for Tuesday, and it is a smaller difference than most women expect.
“I bought the Freya first, then came back for the Kaia. Florals have always been my weakness. I’ve worn the Freya for coffee with friends and the Kaia over a simple dress for church. Both feel like things I’ll actually use, instead of saving them for an occasion that never comes.”
Phyllis R., LexingtonThese, against the jacket you actually wear
| The everyday jacket | These | |
|---|---|---|
| The front | Beige, or gray, on purpose | Sixteen prints to choose between |
| 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 |
| Sizing | Runs to L, if you are lucky | 2XS through 4XL, every print |
I refuse to sell a woman something lovely on the condition that she puts it away. That is the whole reason this rail is in the shop.
Why we’re clearing them now
These came in at $269.95 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 under a third of what it was.
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
$269.95$79.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 70%
- 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 finished lining
- Sixteen prints · sizes 2XS, XS, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL
- 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
I have been thinking about that customer’s letter for months now, and I do not think she was really writing to me about a jacket.
She was telling me she had stopped waiting. That the good things had come down off the shelf and gone into the week, and that this turned out to be allowed.
It is allowed. Go and have a look at the rail, and pick the one you would put on tomorrow.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE VIVIAN’S QUILTED JACKETS — $79.95 EACH →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.