Blame the TikTok “old money aesthetic” trend, this year’s recent makeover of the classic L.L. BeanBoat and Tote, the way some of the coolest brands right now such as Bode and Thom Browne subvert preppy mainstays like rugby stripes, not to mention J.Crew’s big return – but have you ever wanted to knot a sweater around your shoulders more?
The ultimate preppy styling move, the sweater (preferably cable-knit but not compulsory) has made a triumphant return.
Take Alexa Chung and Lila Moss at Wimbledon earlier this year. Chung, who remains an ultimate style icon while also proving that your style can evolve, wore a Ralph Lauren utility shirt, skinny-ish jeans (are they also back?) and a lavender cable-knit sweater knotted around her shoulders. Moss meanwhile paired a cornflower-blue slip dress with a matching sweater tied just so.
The looks had the effect of being both practical (being prepared for a surprise bout of chilliness is always to be commended) and looking effortless.
They also fit with the “something happening with sweaters” moment we’re currently in. For one, Chung and Moss are not the only It girls suddenly knotting sweaters around their necks in the manner of country club mums. The likes of Gigi Hadid, Tracee Ellis Ross and Kendall Jenner are also fans.
Meanwhile, a new fashion-person thing is to wear a sweater over a blazer as a sort of pointless-but-beguiling styling trick. Moda Operandi co-founder Lauren Santo Domingo has done this, and so too Alexa Chung (so yeah, it’s really a thing). At Paris Fashion Week, influencer Nicole Warne tied a brown sweater over her shoulders at the Hermès show.
Meanwhile, reinterpretations of the sweater were a key trend this season. And by reinterpretations, specifically this means sweaters with many sleeves.
At the likes of Proenza Schouler and Commission in New York and Fendi in Milan – not to mention recent seasons by Jonathan Anderson at Loewe and JW Anderson – were sweaters with an extra set of sleeves that could be tied around the shoulder or used to cinch in your waist (or really, do whatever you want with).
The kooky yet luxurious look isn’t a new silhouette: Phoebe Philo did it at Celine (and don’t forget, Philo made her much-anticipated return to fashion in October this year).
But it is a reminder that there’s more than one way to wear a sweater and also, probably, four arms are better than two.