My new favourite thing is a Molly Goddard knitted sweater vest. Irritating admission: I got it at a sample sale. It’s grey with a pink stripe which initially felt slightly sudden but on winter days a little bit of colour is so cheering.
Sweater vests have been buzzing around for a while, but are something I’ve completely ignored until now. If I’m honest, I didn’t get the point. Some were wearing them earlier in the year with a bare arm which, while I respected the effort, couldn’t see it as something that would work for me personally. It felt very much like an item you could wear for about two days of the year where your arm wouldn’t be too cold and your body not too warm.
And yet. I am gracious enough to accept on occasion, I can be wrong. But that’s the crux of fashion really. Different body parts of clothing waft in and out of focus, at first seeming odd and then with a small eye adjustment become perfectly correct. The only thing I’m committed to is my fickleness.
As it turns out, the sweater vest is an ideal and unnervingly useful addition. I’ve had to stop myself from wearing it every day. Over a shirt, lovely. Over a T-shirt, quite sweet. With jeans, with long skirts, over a dress. It’s also proven to be one of those additions that lets you reappraise old favourites and give them another go in a new combination. Getting layering right can be a bit trial and error, but once you find your formulas it’s great fun.
Emma Corrin last week wore a shocking green Miu Miu one underneath a suit to an awards party which I was very into. There’s no end to its pliability. Just warm enough, and actually a knit without arms sits so happily under a coat.
There are plenty of chic options around. Lyst, the fashion search engine, has noted a 50 per cent spike in searches for them since September, with Ganni being a favourite. The Danish brand’s sweater vest offer is so thorough that it even has its own section on its website. I like the Argyll print, but there are lots of options. I think a block colour is possibly your most helpful bet in terms of longevity. &Daughter, which is marking 10 years of fashioning perfect knit pieces from its network of five Irish and Scottish yarns and makers, has versions in grey, red and navy and camel. While for a Corrin-like pop of bright, I love Lisa Yang’s tangy take.
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