A Letter From Vivian: The Zinnia
A letter from the founder
The trouble with a red coat is that it is only red.
On the six things that made me choose the Zinnia, how it compares to the coat in your hall closet, and why it is $109.95 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.
Every autumn a woman tells me she would love a coat with some colour in it. Every autumn she buys the dark one. For a long time I thought that was timidity, and after twenty years of watching it I have decided it is arithmetic.
Because a bright coat, as they are usually made, is one colour. A red coat. A teal coat. And one colour is not a gift, it is a demand. It has to agree with the scarf. It has to agree with the bag, and the top underneath, and whether the shoes are brown or black. She stands in the shop doing sums about a wardrobe that is at home in a cupboard she cannot see, and the dark coat is the only one that asks her no questions.
She is not frightened of the colour. She is refusing the arithmetic, and she is quite right to refuse it.
So what I went looking for was a coat with so much colour in it that there is nothing left to match.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
The Zinnia is my answer. There were six things I would not do without.
Nothing has to match it, because everything already does
Count the colours in it. Marigold, orange, coral, sky blue, violet, green, white. Whatever is hanging in your wardrobe this minute, something in this coat is already holding hands with it. Navy top — the blue and the violet. Brown boots — the marigold. Grey, cream, black, denim, all of it. That is the reversal, and it is the whole reason this one gets worn rather than admired: a coat with one colour in it has to match something, and a coat with seven has nothing left to match.
“The blue and violet mixed in with the orange make this surprisingly easy to wear with things I already own. Lovely over a plain navy top.”
Marlene K., Greenville“I almost talked myself out of the bright colors. Glad I didn't. The yellow and orange are such a cheerful combination, and with my usual jeans the whole thing feels very easy to wear.”
Pamela T., CincinnatiIt is a wash, not a pattern
This is the part I would ask you to look at closely. There is no motif here and no repeat — nothing sits inside an outline, and nothing comes round again six inches further down. The colours bleed into one another the way wet paint does, marigold running into orange and orange into blue, with flecks thrown across the shoulders. A pattern is a thing a factory prints. A wash is a thing that looks made, and the eye can tell the difference across a street without knowing why.
“I bought the Zinnia for everyday errands, but wore it to a family lunch first. My granddaughter said it looked like a painting. The little splashes of color are my favorite part. I kept the rest of my outfit simple and felt quite pleased with myself.”
Sheila G., Des MoinesFleece the whole way through, sleeves and hood included
Brushed fleece runs from the collar to the hem and carries on down through both sleeves, and the same fleece lines the hood. Most makers line the body and stop there, because the sleeves are where a lining costs money and where nobody thinks to check. It matters for one reason: warmth that lives in the lining does not need thickness, so the coat is warm without being heavy — and it is the shoulders that get tired by four in the afternoon, never the arms.
“The fleece goes down the sleeves, too! That was the detail that sold me. Soft against my arms and comfortable without that heavy, bundled-up feeling.”
Connie D., RoanokeOne zipper, and two pockets you can lose a glove in
A row of buttons is a decision you make five times on a cold morning with one hand, and the top one never gets done. The Zinnia has a zipper: up when the wind gets going, down when you are only walking from the car to a shop door. And the pockets are set into the front at hip height and are properly deep — a phone, a set of keys and a pair of gloves at the same time, which is the difference between taking a bag on the short walk and not taking one at all.
“Good pockets and a zipper instead of a row of buttons. Sometimes it's the practical things. The pretty colors certainly don't hurt.”
Rita W., BoiseA hood with room in it, and a drawstring
Three separate decisions, and each one gets skipped somewhere. It is lined in the same fleece, so putting it up is warm rather than merely out of the wind. It is left roomy, so it goes over hair you have already done instead of flattening it. And there is a drawstring, so on the mornings that bite you pull it close rather than holding it shut with one hand while you carry everything else in the other.
“Took this along for a weekend visiting my sister. The lining felt cozy, and I was glad for the hood when we went out for coffee on a chilly morning. There's room to pull it up comfortably, then draw it in a bit. I've reached for this coat several times since coming home.”
Vicki A., Grand JunctionIt falls past the hip, and it does not grip when you sit down
It falls past the hip, which is where a coat stops being a jacket and starts actually covering you, and it hangs straight rather than being drawn in anywhere — so there is nothing gripping at the middle when you sit, and nothing to arrange when you stand. It is true to size and cut generous on purpose, to fit the woman rather than asking the woman to fit it. One piece of advice I would give you across the counter: if you like a thick sweater underneath, take one size up. Seven sizes, S through 4XL, every one of them the same price.
“I tend to have trouble with coats feeling snug through the middle when I sit down. This one has a nice easy shape, and I appreciate that it comes below my hips. I've been wearing it zipped for my morning walk and open when I'm just going from the car into a store. Comfortable both ways.”
Joan F., HarrisburgThe Zinnia, against the coat in your hall closet
| The usual winter coat | The Zinnia | |
|---|---|---|
| Colour | One shade, and everything has to agree with it | Seven, so there is nothing left to match |
| The artwork | A printed repeat you can watch repeating | A painted wash, with no motif and no repeat |
| Warmth | Warm because it is thick | Fleece-lined collar to hem and through the sleeves |
| The front | A row of buttons, done up with cold hands | One zipper, up or down |
| Pockets | Shallow, so you carry a bag as well | Two deep, at the hip |
| Sizing | Stops at XL, if you are lucky | S through 4XL, one price |
I refuse to sell a woman a coat that then tells her what else she is allowed to wear. That is the whole reason the Zinnia is in the store.
Why we’re clearing it now
The Zinnia hangs at $549.95 on the rail, which is what a coat finished this way goes for: artwork laid down as a wash across the body and both sleeves rather than printed as a repeat, brushed fleece run from the collar to the hem and down both sleeves, and that same fleece carried up into the hood. 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 Zinnia is going out at a fifth of that.
I will give you the honest reasoning too. A coat is the one thing a woman wears over everything else she owns, so it is the piece people actually see, and it is the piece she keeps for years. This is the coat you buy now, before the first morning you need it. If it is the one you reach for every day for the next five winters, then $109.95 was never the point.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$549.95$109.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 80%
- A painted wash of marigold, orange, sky blue and violet, with flecks of coral, green and white
- Brushed fleece lining, collar to hem and through the sleeves
- A roomy fleece-lined hood with a drawstring
- A front zipper closure
- Two deep front pockets at the hip
- Falls past the hip, and never grips at the middle
- True to size · S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every size the same price · while sizes last
Twenty years behind this counter, and about a coat like this one the sentence I hear most often is: I could never.
She is never talking about the colour. She is talking about the half hour she imagines comes afterwards — the scarf that will now have to be found, the top that will now have to be right, the whole morning that a bright coat is going to cost her from here on.
There is no half hour. You put it on over what you were already wearing, and you go.
Go find your size.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE THE ZINNIA — $109.95 →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.