When the temperature drops and the days shorten, it can be easy to hide away inside until the sun returns. If, however, you are looking for some impetus to spur you out into the world this winter, the Wallpaper* guide to the world’s best knitwear brands has an array of designers, labels, makers and craftspeople creating covetable knits which span the colourful, the classic and the cosy, seeing you through autumn, winter and beyond.
From historic Scottish and Italian mills to fluoro cashmere and sustainably-minded sweaters made from leftover yarns, we’ve divided the list into three categories: ‘The Heritage Icons’ (brands with decades, if not centuries, in business, and rooted in traditional craft), ‘The Innovative Up-and-Comers’ (a roster of labels disrupting classic knitwear tropes with bold colour, unexpected silhouettes and artistic collaborations), and ‘The Luxury Powerhouses’ (blockbuster labels where sleek, contemporary design meets a focus on craft). In other words, there’s something for every taste.
THE HERITAGE ICONS
Johnstons of Elgin
In its 225 years of existence, Johnstons of Elgin has mastered the art of creating the perfect cashmere sweater. Not only does the Scottish heritage brand produce cashmere products that are made entirely in-house in their Elgin workshops on the River Lossie, they also provide cashmere and wool to some of the world’s biggest fashion brands. When it comes to knitwear, Johnstons takes craftsmanship to the extreme, as evidenced by the 33 people who are involved in creating something as seemingly simple as a scarf, with each step of the process – from dying and blending to spinning – carried out by specialised artisans. As such, purchasing an item from Johnstons is an investment: we recommend the brand’s classic cable-knit sweater to wear with jeans, underneath or blazer, or paired with one of the brand’s tweed coats, the most recent of which are made from the highest quality merino wool fibres to ensure the checkered or houndstooth patterns have a bold, textural finish.
Invest in: the Donegal cable-knit sweater in Donegal cashmere (£650), a perennial wardrobe staple that’s made for men but can be swapped between genders. Available johnstonsofelgin.com.
Barrie
Founded on the Scottish Borders in 1903, Barrie is synonymous with luxury cashmere – so much so, it was acquired by Chanel’s elite circle of Métiers d’Art houses in 2012 (the term refers to the highly skilled artisanal makers which partner with the Parisian house on the materials and embellishment used in their collections). As such, the brand is a part of a major Chanel initiative launched in 2015 to ensure the quality and traceability of all the cashmere the house uses, from the Mongolian plateaus where the wool is harvested to the mills in Scotland where it is woven. When it comes to craftsmanship, the brand has few rivals. It is the only manufacturer in the world which still judges the washing of each garment individually and even has its own training school to ensure that traditional practices live on.
In addition to producing cashmere for Chanel, Barrie launched its own brand in 2018, recently collaborating with Sofia Coppola on a capsule collection that includes striped sweaters, pink cashmere jumpsuits and a ‘travel set’ shawl and eye mask. Yet, the brand’s most impressive creations might be its trompe-l’oeil denim collection, which features jackets and trousers that look like they are distressed denim but have the lightness and ease of cashmere.
Invest in: the illusory Barrie Denim collection, like its ‘denim’ jacket (£2460), which is actually meticulously crafted from knitted cashmere and cotton. Available from selfridges.com.
Loro Piana
Since its founding in 1924, Loro Piana has dedicated itself to sourcing the finest raw materials from around the world and transforming them into the highest quality fabrics. The brand’s many innovations include an extremely rare ‘baby cashmere’ fabric, which is an exceptionally soft material made from the underfleece of Hircus goat kids. It also produces an exclusive ‘Denim Silk’ material, which blends silk and cotton to create what might be the most luxurious iteration of the workman’s fabric there is, as well as jumpers made from vicuña, the rarest material in the world.
If ‘sprezzatura’ – the Italian phrase for considered effortlessness – is what you are looking for, then Loro Piana is the brand for you. Its knitwear designs span everything from sweaters to cashmere suits, and even if prices into the several thousand – with each piece taking hours of work to produce – the final product always feels effortless.
Invest in: there’s something to be said for a classic – Loro Piana’s Parksville crew-neck sweater (£1,080) is crafted from cashmere from the Hircus goats of Inner Mongolia for an ultra-soft finish. Available mytheresa.com.
Begg x Co
As this list attests, the Scottish and Italians are neck and neck when it comes to producing the world’s best knitwear cashmere. Begg x Co, which runs from mills in Ayr on Scotland’s west coast and Hawick, on the Scottish Borders – the so-called ‘home of cashmere’ – is yet another brand that harnesses over 150 years of Scottish heritage to create exceptional cashmere knitwear, accessories and homeware.
What sets Begg x Co apart, though, is the way that the brand has evolved, bringing a distinctly contemporary approach to its knitwear, which spans top-stitched sweaters, colourful rugby shirts, space-dyed yarns, and flower-adorned cashmere jumpers, largely in the easy, oversized fits for which the brand has become known. It’s an approach that extends to a colourful homeware collection, including an array of cashmere and lambswool blankets, which include abstract motifs by textile artists like Hayley McCrirrick.
Invest in: few do colour like Begg x Co, so counteract grey winter days with its oversized ‘sour apple’ scarf (£775), crafted from ultra-fine 15.5-micron cashmere in the brand’s Scottish mills. Available beggxco.com.
THE INNOVATIVE UP-AND-COMERS
Extreme Cashmere
When Amsterdam-based Saskia Dijkstra started making cashmere sweaters, she decided to keep the brand anonymous, eschewing labels to ensure that she never had to compromise quality for price or align her design ideas with a predetermined brand identity. In 2016, the brand did get a name – Extreme Cashmere – but its maxim ‘no limits, no concessions’ still stands (while its labels are now just designed to be cut away).
The brand’s super-soft Mongolian cashmere creations come in classic styles and colours, like pullovers and cardigans in navy and felt grey, as well as unexpected ones, such as tube tops, halter tops and mini skirts in over 100 shades including magenta and lime green. Everything comes in a single size, with the idea that you should select a style to suit your shape, rather than choosing from a list of predetermined sizes.
Extreme Cashmere’s wide customer base testifies to the fact that it is the cool kid of cashmere. As Dijkstra told us in 2022, ‘to persuade women in their sixties [to wear cashmere] is easy, but to make young people feel cool – it’s not. To have just one brand, and to dress everybody, it’s good.’
Invest in: for the uninitiated, begin with the ‘Crew Hop’ (£510), the brand’s roomy, unisex crew-neck sweater available in an array of colourful hues – after that, you’ll be addicted. Available harveynichols.com.
Waste Yarn Project
Waste Yarn Project was founded in 2020 by designer Siri Johansen and her friend Sebastien Maes, who owns the China-based knitwear manufacturer Maestro Knitting, with a single goal: to transform the masses of yarn waste created by the fashion industry into a line of playful, one-of-a-kind knitwear.
They succeed by embracing the randomness of the yarns they receive to create vivid, colour-blocked sweaters, cardigans and accessories which have a spontaneous, hand-spun feel. The brand even developed its own colour theory method and applied it to the ‘WYP Wheel of Fortune,’ which every artisan must spin to determine what colours will make up their next creation.
As Johansen says, ‘I’ve always had a love for the waste yarn – the way the colour of the random threads often clash so perfectly with the main knit. This element of the unfamiliar, strange and intriguing, is hard to consciously design. It can only really happen by chance.’
Invest in: one of the brand’s signature colour-blocked sweaters (€450). As they are made from leftover yarn, each is entirely unique, meaning you’ll own the only one in existence. Available wasteyarnproject.com.
Hades
Hades is knitwear for punks. The British brand, which was founded in 2016 by young Londoner Cassie Holland, is best known for designs inspired by figures from counter-culture (’Blondie,’ ‘Iggy Pop,’ and ‘X-Ray Specs’ have all appeared emblazoned on her colourful, largely typographical sweaters). This year, the brand even collaborated with trailblazing actress Tilda Swinton on a collection which featured a cardigan with a pair of red hands sneaking around the bust, a mini skirt covered in scissors, and a skirt emblazoned by an image of her character in the 1992 Sally Potter-directed movie Orlando. Outside of the collaboration, highlights include a lime green cardigan with buttons that look like cigarettes and scarves adorned with antique images of ancient Greek statues.
As Swinton herself says about the brand, ‘the spirit of Hades is a beautiful thing: vivacious and witty and enthusiastically counter-cultural, while simultaneously dedicated to the highest possible quality of traditionally made artisanal pieces in the heart of the Scottish Borders, my familial home.’ Do you need a better review than that?
Invest in: the Tilda x Hades ‘Orlando’ skirt (£280) – fan merch that’s not for wallflowers. Available hades-shop.co.uk.
Zankov
‘It's about pushing the boundaries of what knitwear can be,’ Henry Zankov, founder of the knitwear brand Zankov, told us a few months ago, ahead of his most recent New York Fashion Week show. The New York-based brand launched in 2020 and has already become a favourite among fashion insiders for its punchy colour combinations and innovative stitching techniques.
Zankov’s latest collection saw the designer experimenting with new knit materials, developed alongside Italian mills, including a wool yarn that has a small amount of metal woven into the thread to give a luminous sheen and a slightly wrinkled texture. But there were also still plenty of the beloved Zankov classics, including his floor-length striped dresses and peek-a-boo intarsia tops. ‘We’ll probably never do a fisherman or cable-knit sweater, or if we do it will be in our own way, because for me, it's really about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within the stitch and the technique.’
Invest in: go for bold with the ‘Leigh’ dress ($1,095), a body-contouring ribbed-knit in Zankov’s signature boldly-coloured stripes. Available zankovstudio.com.
&Daughters
&Daughter is, as its name suggests, a family affair. Founder Buffy Reid gained her knowledge of knitwear through her Irish granny, who was a talented knitter, and her father, who began his career selling the Donegal tweeds and Arans of his native country. Today, Reid works with many of the same Scottish and Irish makers as her father to create the knitwear for &Daughter.
Like those traditional Arans, &Daughter knitwear is durable and insulating, but entirely modern – its cardigans, pullovers and waistcoats come in vibrant colours and have slouchy fits, resulting in styles that evoke school uniforms with a twist. Case in point, our favourite style from the brand, the ‘Ada’ crewneck cardigan, a classic lambswool cardigan with a roomy fit and chic trocus shell buttons which comes in shades from poppy red and pale blue to classic flannel grey.
The brand also recently launched menswear with a 10-piece debut collection that includes a chunky rib zip jacket, a collared knit polo shirt and a varsity-style sweater. Crafted from Scotland-spun lambswool and made in Scotland and Ireland, the concise collection will see you through winter (and beyond).
Invest in: the ‘Ada’ crew-neck cardigan in bold poppy red, which will become your winter-time uniform. Available ssense.com.
God’s True Cashmere
God’s True Cashmere is a cashmere line founded by Brad Pitt (that’s right, Brad Pitt) and jewellery designer and holistic healer Sat Hari. The brand began with a dream, but not a metaphorical one, an actual one that Hari had about Pitt saying he needed more cashmere and softness in his life. Taking it as a sign that they should branch into the world of fashion, the two friends decided to make the dream a reality with a line of 100 per cent cashmere clothes spun in Italy.
Every item God’s True Cashmere produces takes inspiration from Hari’s background as a healer, including the fact that every shirt has seven buttons (for your seven chakras, naturally) made from gemstones hand-cut in India and intended to conjure a different positive quality like love or wealth. The brand’s plaid button-ups are their most noteworthy product: with a boxy, unisex fit and available in a multitude of checkered hues.
Invest in: the brand’s signature plaid shirt (£1,800), a truly luxurious riff on the wardrobe staple which references the label’s American roots. Available mytheresa.com.
THE LUXURY POWERHOUSES
Luca Faloni
Luca Faloni was inspired to create his namesake brand when he moved abroad and realised how rare it was to find the kind of high-quality clothing he took for granted in his native Italy. Leaving his job as a business consultant in San Francisco to pursue fashion, Faloni resolved to create a brand that celebrated Italian style while working to protect the craft of local artisans in the country, many of whom were losing work to manufacturers overseas.
He succeeded, and this year, Luca Faloni reached 10 years in business, adding linen shirts and leather outerwear to its already expansive roster of knitwear and cashmere. It also made good on its promise to keep all of its manufacturing in Italy – that includes silk-cashmere from Cariaggi, linen from one of the oldest mills in the country, brushed cotton from Grandi & Rubinelli, pique from a historic mill in Veneto and full grain leather from Santa Croce, Tuscany.
Invest in: though there is plenty to choose from, we’ve heard that the brand’s cashmere baseball cap (£195) is a favourite of Mr Faloni himself. Available lucafaloni.com.
Herno
Herno launched in 1948 as a manufacturer of raincoats that were made waterproof with castor oil from planes abandoned after the Second World War. By the mid-1950s the Italian brand branched out into reversible, hand-woven cashmere coats, before eventually expanding into full-blown women’s, men’s and children’s collections.
And, while Herno’s outerwear remains its signature, an expansion of its knitwear division – including a 2020-founded suite dedicated to innovation and sustainable practices in knitwear – has made for some particularly covetable results. Spanning wool, cashmere and soft alpaca, the enveloping styles include pullover sweaters and cardigans, alongside sportier hybrid garments which combine down padding with knitwear – a hard-working final layer primed for the cooler months ahead.
Invest in: the hybrid bomber jacket in woven cashmere with knitted sleeves – it feels like a cardigan but protects like a jacket (all the more so with its innovative water-repellant surface). Available herno.com.
Studio Nicholson
Nick Wakeman’s London-based label Studio Nicholson is known for its elegant, softly structured silhouettes and understated riffs on wardrobe staples, which draw inspiration from Japanese design, architecture and contemporary furnishings. The fact that a large part of Cate Blanchett’s wardrobe in Tár was designed by Studio Nicholson is emblematic of the type of customer the brand attracts – people with exacting, practical but impossibly chic taste.
Studio Nicholson’s knitwear – one of the brand’s highlights – is in keeping with those qualities. Its silhouettes are structured to ‘skim, slouch or cocoon the body,’ while all of its yarn is sourced from Britain and is engineered to last throughout an owner’s lifetime. We particularly love the brand’s ‘Gomes’ knit, perhaps the perfect roll-neck sweater – Lydia Tár would no doubt be a fan.
Invest in: the slouchy roll-neck ‘Gomes’ knit, a Studio Nicholson signature, is a sweater you’ll wear on repeat this winter (and beats out styles that are double the price). Available studionicholson.com.
studionicholson.com
Brunello Cucinelli
The namesake founder of Brunello Cucinelli is known as ‘the king of cashmere’ for good reason. At only 25 years old, the young Italian, who was then working as a fashion model, decided he wanted to make cashmere sweaters with modern cuts and vibrant colours. If that sounds normal now, it was a revolution in 1978, and within a few years, the quality of Cucinelli’s 53 cashmere sweaters was enough to kickstart a brand that now includes everything from suits to footwear.
One thing that has never changed, though, is the brand’s commitment to exceptional craftsmanship. The brand’s cashmere sweaters are of course a must, as are their cashmere blend blazers, which with their elegant cuts and soft material, embody the insouciant elegance of Italian style.
Invest in: though Brunello Cucinelli might be known for its classic beige and camel sweaters, their handmade opera knits (£4,100) – some adorned with thousands of miniature sequins – are a true paean to craft. Available net-a-porter.com.
