A letter from the founder
Diane · Founder, Diane & Susan Portland · September 2026
A hoodie is the most comfortable thing a woman owns and the one she will not answer the door in.
On the six things I looked for before these came into the store, how they compare to what you have been reaching for, and why every piece on the rail is $59.95 for our twentieth year.
There is a moment I have watched a hundred times across this counter. A woman picks up something with a hood on it. She likes it. She holds it against herself, and then she puts it back down, because somewhere along the way she decided a hood belongs to somebody younger than she is.
I am Diane, and I opened this boutique twenty years ago with one idea: that a woman should not have to choose between comfortable and beautiful. The hood is exactly where that idea gets quietly abandoned.
Because what she wants is the comfort of the thing — the soft knit, the room through the middle, the not having to think about it. What she does not want is to look like she gave up and put on somebody else’s sweatshirt. So she buys the plain cardigan instead, which is fine, and a little joyless, and then she is cold at the back of the neck on the porch in October.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose.
This is a rail of twenty pieces built on one refusal — that comfortable has to mean careless. Every one of them buttons down the front the way a cardigan does, and every one of them has a soft hood sitting at the back for the evenings that turn. There were six things I looked for.
It buttons. It does not go over your head.
This is the first thing I looked for and it is the one that gets skipped, because a pullover is cheaper to make. A buttoned front means she can put it on without going through it — over hair she has already done, over a blouse she does not want to tug out of shape. It means she can open it when the kitchen gets warm instead of taking the whole thing off. And the buttons here are wood rather than plastic, which is a small thing that a woman notices in her hand and a manufacturer notices on the invoice.
“The black mandala shapes against all that pink and orange are what sold me on Adelaide. I wore it with a cream shirt and jeans, nothing fancy, and really liked the combination. The wooden buttons are a pretty finishing touch.”
Louise B., Ann Arbor“My Cordelia is soft and roomy enough over a long-sleeved shirt. I especially like being able to unbutton it when the house warms up. Pretty purple, too.”
Rebecca J., SpokaneThe hood is there, and you are allowed to ignore it
A hood is wonderful in a wind and a nuisance under a seatbelt. So this one sits soft and flat at the back, folded like a collar rather than bunched like sportswear, and most days it will simply lie there and do nothing. Then there is one evening on the porch when the air turns, and it is the difference between going inside and staying out another half hour. That is the whole case for it. It does not need to be used to be worth having.
“I chose Harriet because I wanted a simple color with a little detail. The mint green and wooden buttons are a lovely combination. Wore it out to the porch after supper and ended up putting the hood up when it got breezy. Glad it’s there, even though I usually leave it down.”
Joyce E., Madison“I ordered Cordelia and Adelaide together. Both have the button front and hood I wanted, but the prints feel quite different. I keep reaching for Cordelia, although my husband votes for Adelaide!”
Glenda P., LancasterTwenty of them — and not all of them shout
This is the part I was most careful about. A rail like this usually turns out to be one idea in twenty shades, or else all of it is loud and a woman who wanted something quiet has nowhere to go. So there are the prints — mandalas on pink and orange, a stitched patchwork in blues and greens, florals on cream and ivory — and then there are the plain ones, in mint, camel, blush, gray, red, white and yellow, for the woman who wants the shape and not the noise. Same cardigan underneath. She picks which conversation she is having.
“Harriet in mint green was my first order. I liked the soft knit and relaxed fit enough to come back for the two printed ones, Cordelia and Adelaide. So now I have three. The mint is lovely with my patterned tops, and I wear the others over plain tees. They’ve each found a place in my weekly rotation.”
Gail M., Roanoke“Bought four altogether—two prints, a pink one, and a red one. The pink was for my daughter, and I kept the other three. It’s nice having a plain option as well as those colorful patterns. We tried ours on together, and she immediately claimed she’d be borrowing one of my printed ones.”
Annmarie T., RichmondThe printed ones have already made their peace with your closet
This sounds backwards, so let me explain it. A garment in one strong color has to be matched to something. A garment carrying pink and orange and teal and black all at once has already settled with everything — it sits over black pants, over navy, over the same jeans she has worn all week, and it does not ask for a single thing to be bought to go with it. It is the loudest piece in the closet and the easiest to place, and those two facts are the same fact.
“Adelaide has such a cheerful mix of pink, orange, and blue. I thought the black designs might feel too busy, but they look nice with black pants. That made getting dressed for dinner very easy.”
Roseanne K., CincinnatiCut relaxed, and every single one goes to 5XL
A relaxed cut is not a shortcut. It is a decision to fit the woman rather than ask the woman to fit it. These hang easy through the middle and go over a long-sleeved shirt without pulling anywhere. And I will give you the number plainly, because this is where most rails disappoint: eight sizes, S through 5XL, on every one of the twenty. Not on the popular ones. Not on the plain ones. On all of them.
It goes in the machine
I will not stock a piece a woman has to protect. These wash at home on a cool cycle, and then they are hung or laid out to dry rather than tumbled, which is all a knit ever really asks. No dry cleaner, no special errand, no label she has to squint at. That is what keeps a thing at the front of the closet instead of quietly retired to around-the-house wear by November.
These, against what you have been reaching for
| The usual comfortable layer | These | |
|---|---|---|
| The front | Pullover, over your head | Buttons down the front, in wood |
| The hood | Sportswear, or none at all | Soft, folded flat, there when you want it |
| Choice | One idea in a few shades | Twenty — prints, florals and plain colors |
| Care | Dry clean, or shrink it once | Machine wash cool, air dry |
| Sizes | Runs to XL, if you are lucky | S through 5XL on every one |
I refuse to sell a woman something that asks her to look tired in order to be comfortable. That is the whole reason this rail is in the store.
Why we’re clearing them now
These were $299.95 on the rail, every one of them, which is where a knit cardigan finished this way sits: a buttoned front rather than a pullover, wooden buttons rather than plastic, and the full eight sizes cut for every single piece rather than only the ones that sell fastest. I am not going to stand here and tell you that is a small amount of money for a cardigan. But the store turns twenty this year, and my daughter Susan 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 every piece on the rail is going out at $59.95.
And I would rather they went now than in December. This is the weight of layer that fall is for, and there are only so many of each size in each piece. When they are gone they are gone, and I would rather they went onto women than back into the stockroom.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$299.95$59.95
Save 80% — every hooded knit, $59.95
- A buttoned front in wooden buttons, so it opens and closes
- A soft hood at the back, folded flat until you want it
- Twenty pieces — mandala and patchwork prints, florals, and plain colors
- Cut relaxed · S through 5XL on every one of them
- Machine wash cool · air dry, never the dryer
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every piece the same price · while sizes last
I keep coming back to that moment at the counter, the one where she puts it down again. She is not really deciding about a hood.
She is deciding whether comfort is still something she is allowed to have where people can see her. It is a quieter question than it sounds, and a great many women have answered it wrong for years.
Go and have a look at the rail, and pick the one you keep going back to.
— Diane Diane & Susan Portland
This is a personal letter from the founder of Diane & Susan Portland. Customer reviews are quoted as written. · US family brand since 2006 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.