The Cardigan
You can be excused if Mister Rogers and Jimmy Carter left you with the erroneous impression that cardigan sweaters were fine for nice guys, but a little, well, stodgy for you. Telling stories with puppets or giving fireside chats on how to save energy is hardly the image of a dynamo. Nevertheless, consider that the same sweater type was a favorite garment of Steve McQueen—not only off the screen, but on. He wore them in The Cincinnati Kid and Bullitt in an era when he was very much in the running for the coolest person of all. Then there is The Dude. Jeff Bridges sold the total insouciance of his character in The Big Lebowski by sporting a cardigan almost nonstop. Then came Kurt Cobain. The Nirvana lead singer was the foremost purveyor of grunge chic—definitely not a fogey.
But how can the same garment work in such opposite directions? McQueen, Bridges and Cobain all went with the flow. Their cardigans were long and roomy, acting almost as coats or jackets. The host of the kids’ TV show and the former president wore short and tight sweaters, closer to sweater vests that you’d wear underneath a jacket. Not a bold statement, but something more akin to “I couldn’t decide what this was.”
The key is length. Instead of cutting off close to the belt, a dap wrap rides the hips like a tunic. You shouldn’t be able to tuck it in—even if you wanted to do something so decidedly uncool. A shawl collar is an element that puts the cardigan into a higher realm. It draws the eye to the face and frames the head, to say nothing of conferring a sense of height. It’s a cut that suggests power even as it seems so casual. Button it only two or three times across the mid torso and it will flare at the hips and give a satisfying sweep to its lines.
With such a sweater you want a looser knit, showing off the stitches, not the fussy, tight knots of a sweater vest. Consider a cable knit that adds interest to all that real estate. Bridges achieved that effect with the Waverly sweater from Pendleton, with its geometric pattern inspired by designs from Native Americans. But then, the Dude abides.
