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Leather is also a sweatier affair than most cardigans, jumpers or sweater vests, which can be worn with shorts or layered over singlets when the summer sun sets.
Yet even with its once nerdy reputation, thanks to television’s Mister Rogers and softboi singers from the sixties such as Val Doonican, the cardigan now packs a subtle sex appeal.
Television personality Fred Rogers, star of Mister Rogers championed the cardigan in its less-nuanced phase of fashion. Credit: Getty Images
“The cardigan conjures up images of academics sitting with their peers discussing ideas or teaching students in an inspiring and thought-provoking way,” says designer Monika Brangan, who specialises in an unconventional, colourful approach to womenswear. “There’s something definitely sexy about being intellectual.”
“Colin Firth is a great example, having popularised the Christmas sweater in Bridget Jones’s Diary. But he also knows a good cardi. The one he wears in Love Actually, though tatty, is sexy.”
While Christmas jumpers are generally worn with irony, the new batch of knitwear is proud as well as loud. It’s the same expression of individuality once confined to patterned socks, ties and boxer shorts.
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Today’s knitwear also has a less flammable reputation in fibres that breathe rather than stew, but don’t try getting away with stealth wealth knitted pieces purchased after multiple viewings of Succession. That featherlight navy cashmere jumper and grey hoodie are aesthetically cold rather than cosy.
“If the wool is thin and the cardigan has no structure, it’s a no,” Branagan says. “I’m also not a fan of a cardi with a zipper.”
Stealth wealth style is about silently signalling taste and affluence. Your naff and nubbly jumper says look at me and smile, like your favourite funny uncle at a family dinner.
Don’t expect your new knit-fit to be inexpensive. Keoghan’s pink sweater vest is from a Louis Vuitton capsule collection with Tyler the Creator, with a $2010 price tag. Troye Sivan’s playful pink Magliano Bimbo cardigan worn to the LA premiere of Wicked costs $1243 while Daniel Craig’s Loewe wool jumper seen at Paris Fashion Week breaks most budgets at $6640.
“Shetland Fair isle vests featured in reruns of Brideshead Revisited and All Creatures Great and Small reference a bygone era or bespoke, handcrafted technique that is now luxury personified,” Thompson says.
Fortunately, the look can be copied by combing secondhand stores, although one dealer I visited had a rack of sweater vests from the ’70s starting at $70. It’s almost enough to make you follow Daley’s lead, squeeze into some Speedos and start knitting.
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