Real stories · Warm ears, no bobble hat

I'd resigned myself to woolly bobble hats every winter — this one keeps my ears warm and makes me feel dressed up doing it

A winter hat that keeps the ears warm without making me look like I've given up — that's what I'd stopped believing existed. I'm 63, and every winter it's the same choice: the woolly bobble hat, which is warm and makes me look like I'm off sledging, or no hat at all, which is elegant right up until my ears go numb on the walk with Winnie.

What I wanted was the third option: proper warmth that looks deliberate — dressed up, even.

Then I found the Aurevine from a small family boutique called The Wilson Family Palm Beach — a gloriously fluffy faux-fur hat, and I chose the brown, which goes with every coat I own.

The joy of it is that it does both jobs at once. The plush pile is deep and dense, so it genuinely keeps the cold out — ears covered, no draught — and the inside is soft, so there's none of that woolly itch across the forehead. But the shape is the real trick: it sits like something you'd wear to a Christmas market in Vienna rather than the school run, and it turns the same old navy coat into an outfit. It weighs nothing, it squashes into a handbag without sulking, and it's one size, so there was no guessing.

Deep, plush and soft-lined, it keeps my ears properly warm on the coldest mornings — and instead of looking like I've given up, I look like I've made an entrance. At the school gate, of all places.

The first outing was the frosty walk to the paper shop, and I got 'ooh, very glamorous' from a neighbour I've known thirty years. Since then it's done every cold dog walk, the Christmas lights switch-on and a freezing football match of my grandson's, where I was the warmest person on the touchline by some distance.

It was $39.95 in the sale, half the usual $79.95 — still under forty dollars. I'd checked before ordering that I could send it back if it didn't suit — you can, within a fortnight, and the delivery's free — so there was nothing lost by trying. It comes in five colours, one size fits most.

If your winter also comes down to 'bobble hat or numb ears', do treat yourself to a look. The Aurevine is rated 4.7 out of 5 by more than 190 women, it's $39.95 in the sale instead of $79.95 — half price — and the popular colours always seem to go first.