Who do you think of when you picture a cardigan? Perhaps it’s Kurt Cobain’s baggy button-ups that became synonymous with Nineties grunge. Or maybe it’s Coco Chanel, who proffered cropped versions in the Twenties alongside her proposition that women could, and should, wear pants. Perhaps it’s David Hockney’s colourful styles worn with white T-shirts, or the Black Ivy prep of Sixties America, where civil rights leaders, jazzmen and writers reinterpreted the sartorial codes of the white elites. Perhaps you think more recently, of Tyler: The Creator, who favours a Crayola-coloured button-up, or Daniel Craig as James Bond, in a shawl-collared iteration.
More than any other item in the closet, the cardigan is loaded with connotations — and every decade or so, this reliable ally, which has been in our own closets since birth, is rediscovered and rendered anew by a pop culture movement. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the cardigan — humble, straightforward and ripe for creative play — has been reborn.
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It’s long-been engrained in the modern psyche as something that endures. Babies are swaddled in prams wearing cardigans over babygrows; by primary school age, in the UK, it’s part of our uniform, worn atop polo tops or cotton shirts as a smarter alternative to a school jersey. Teens adopt cropped versions with low-rise jeans, or pair knits over pyjamas for sleepovers; by adulthood, it’s the thing we gravitate to in offices to ward off the chill. It’s become a fact of life that the cardigan is a sturdy, solid choice.
And it really is for everybody. Toddlers wear cardigans and so do their grandparents. Miami pensioners and ladies at high tea sport them alongside style-savvy millennials. For the cardigan is everywhere again. It became a closet go-to in recent years as we gravitated towards tactile layers that were the ideal indoor-outdoor hybrid: softer than a jacket but no less warming, the cardigan became a wardrobe hero piece thanks to its absolute versatility. Then Katie Holmes wore one with a cashmere bra, and promptly catapulted the classic, round-necked button-up shape as a sartorial star.
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Like most sturdy things in the closet today, the cardigan has its roots in military wear. Named after James Brudenell, a British army major and the seventh Earl of Cardigan, who led the troops during the 1856 Crimean War, the cardigan was reportedly a sleeved take on the knitted waistcoats the soldiers wore under their uniforms: legend has it that Brudenell asked for a waistcoat with sleeves after the tails of his overcoat got burnt on a hearth of a fire.
Decades later, Coco Chanel’s rendition cemented its status as a wardrobe icon on the Paris catwalks and the pages of Vogue: it is said she was fed up with men's sweaters, which she liked to wear, messing up her hair. Mixing utility with style, it’s no surprise that the cardigan has endured. Whether worn solo or layered, plain or patterned, fitted or oversized, there’s no denying its versatility today: it’s a go-to no matter where you’re heading.
It’s long-been a best-seller at John Smedley. For men, the Burley merino knit, with its deep V neckline, is a failsafe and can be layered with tonal sweaters for a put-together looks that would work as well in the office as the weekend; for women, the super slimline Islington is ideal paired with a matching short-sleeved knit for a contemporary, tone-on-tone take on the twinset. Pair with trousers for dinner, and with jeans and loafers for a smart-casual city look.
One thing’s for sure, the cardigan’s appeal is unlikely to ever abate: Taylor Swift cemented its must-wear status for Gen Z when she sang about them — and sold them as merch — while Irish musicians The Cardigans loved them so much, they called their band after it. And in 2019, Kurt Cobain’s famed pale olive knit, worn on his MTV Unplugged performance in 1996, sold at auction for a record-breaking £260,000, making it the most expensive cardigan ever sold, cigarette burns and stains included. The knit’s appeal really has no bounds.
