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There are plenty of jaw-dropping moments in The Brutalist. The Brady Corbet–directed epic charts the journey of architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (played by Adrien Brody) to 1950s America—and his subsequent disillusionment with its false promises of welcoming immigrants and offering creative fulfillment. There’s the awe-inspiring reveal of the elegant library Tóth has designed for his primary patron; his brutal, horrifying betrayal by that same patron in an Italian marble quarry; and the astonishing moment when Tóth’s wife, played by Felicity Jones, confronts the patron’s family for the destruction they have wrought in her own family’s life. All drew an audible response from the audiences I watched with.
Yet when I saw the film for a second time at a cinema in London, having been bewitched by its beauty and staggering ambition after seeing it during last year’s Venice Film Festival, there was another, more unexpected moment that drew gasps from the audience: a sculptural, impeccably cut gray sweater. Worn by Brody in one of the film’s later scenes set in New York, it sprang out of Brutalist costume designer Kate Forbes’s attempts to weave in elements of the beatniks’ wardrobe, emphasizing Tóth’s character—and his artistic sensibilities—as existing somewhat outside of time and place. (Though, if I’m honest, I’d already been hankering after many other pieces from Brody’s wardrobe in the film—not least his perfectly worn-in button-downs and his glorious shiny rubber raincoat. It’s little wonder Tóth was declared an “unsung menswear icon” by GQ; as writer Eileen Cartter put it, “Respectfully, László Tóth had that shit on.”)
And as of today, the 1960s sweater—which was originally uncovered by Forbes at the Berlin costume house Theaterkunst—is available to purchase, thanks to a collaboration between Forbes and the knitwear designer Ilana Blumberg. As well as being a widely respected knitwear guru (Blumberg is the mastermind behind the knits for buzzy London brands like Chopova Lowena and Sinéad O’Dwyer and has created a handful of custom pieces for Harry Styles over the years), she’s also the sister of Daniel Blumberg, the Oscar-winning composer of the film’s unforgettable score.
“I was surprised and delighted by how those clothes were received, but especially delighted by the huge amount of interest in this sweater,” says Forbes of the effusive response to her work on the film. “I guess it leaves me feeling that my approach to have László Tóth feel very timeless and almost modern next to his counterparts paid off, in that even though all his costumes were genuine vintage pieces from the time, his aesthetic feels relevant and very wearable today.” As for the decision to recreate the piece with Blumberg? “Honestly, just seeing the reaction to that sweater made me feel like I needed to bring it back to life,” she adds. “I loved seeing the response to a modest piece of vintage clothing being plucked from anonymity, and finding its way onto the big screen, and becoming so talked about.”
For Blumberg, whose work often involves developing new techniques and fabrications for cutting-edge designers, it offered a different kind of challenge. “So many people have told me about how they elbowed their friends in the cinema when they first saw this sweater, because they were so excited by it,” she says. “When I’ve mentioned working on a sweater from The Brutalist, people seem to instantly know which one I’m talking about.” Having initially studied architecture before moving into knitwear—architectural is a word that comes up repeatedly from both Forbes and Blumberg when describing the garment, which feels especially fitting given Tóth’s occupation—the opportunity felt like kismet. Still, it took many iterations before they managed to get the details exactly right. “It’s an amazingly constructed garment,” Blumberg says, noting that upon getting her hands on the original piece, she discovered that it had been “fully fashioned”—i.e., knitted into its exact final shape without any cutting or sewing. “That’s the beauty of true knitwear,” she adds. “It’s grown into its form.”
Given that the original piece was made entirely by hand—something nearly impossible to achieve if they wanted to scale up the sweater’s production into the hundreds—Blumberg headed to Romania, where she found a team capable of translating the stiffness of the original’s acrylic blend into the more contemporary medium of 100% supersoft lambswool, as well as incorporating the hand-stitched details that lend the sweater its unique structure. “They really appreciated the cultural significance of the piece and took a lot of pride in the quality of its construction,” Blumberg notes. “Nowadays most knitwear is made in the simplest, cheapest way possible, so I’m grateful to them for their persistence and for putting up with our inability to compromise on any small detail.”
The sweater, which is now available for presale, will be released in a limited edition of just 300 pieces—a decision made by Forbes to ensure it felt truly “special”—and is made-to-order only, “which avoids any wastage—something I really struggle with in modern fashion,” Forbes adds. “It makes me very happy to know that—because of the passion and dedication of enough people who watched the film and began a conversation about it—this unique and special knit, whose origins remain unknown, now gets another lease of life.”
Most of all, though, both Blumberg and Forbes echo each other in describing the joy they found in collaborating with another—and the unexpected friendship that has sprung out of it. “It’s been really special,” says Forbes, citing Blumberg’s endless “energy and enthusiasm” and the “vast knitwear knowledge” she brought to the table to recreate the garment faithfully. As for Blumberg, it served as a welcome challenge, thinking about not just the technical aspects of creating knitwear but the soul of a piece of clothing too. “I can see a knitted garment as a notation full of technical information to work backwards from and re-create it, but Kate deeply understood the spirit of the piece—what it’s communicating, the history and the present,” she says. “I learned a lot from her in the process of trying to translate these precise metaphysical qualities into stitches and rows.” You can feel that depth and dedication in every fiber.
The Brutalist sweater is available to buy from November 15. To sign up, visit brutalistsweater.com.
