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Welcome to the cardigan’s late summer rebrand. Lightweight wool button-ups, from the likes of Brit labels &Daughter and Cinta, have been a seasonal mainstay for It-girls living in slip skirts and flip-flops (the slither of torso peeping out is everything). But now, the sweet cardi has her sights set on autumn. She’s got a back-to-school mood in mind, a bookish look on the brain, and she’s studying up on her trans-seasonal styling.
Your new-season cardigan muses? We’re so glad you asked. September’s British Vogue cover star, Kylie Jenner, wore the epitome of the modern granny cardi while taking high tea recently. Her lemon Molly Goddard knit was inspired by vintage bedding (particularly the “felted wool and wobbly satin trims” found in your grandparents’ house, according to the designer), but the styling was anything but old-fashioned. Teamed with a black ruched bralette and a frothy, petticoat-esque skirt, Jenner’s look skewed sexy, rather than saccharine.
The crop top and cardigan formula is one ladylike London labels have nailed for some time. Erdem and Emilia Wickstead major in the prim and proper aesthetic, but their protagonists always have an air of eccentricity about them, as if they might engage in some sort of hijinks after neatly buttering their scones. This fun rebrand of pensioner chic is going nowhere this winter if JW Anderson’s M&S-inspired collection, debuted on models wearing curly-haired grey wigs, is a barometer of what’s to come on home soil. Pointelle at the ready!
Back to August: Katie Holmes, the bellwether of everywoman fashion, just swapped her breezy striped shirts for a neat cream cardigan that looked effortless shrugged on over a grey tee, jeans and ballet flats in New York. It was APC styling done well–clearly the actor learnt a thing or two from the low-key French brand when collaborating with the team on a Noughties-flecked edit (the Ambre cardigan, incidentally, was a highlight). Laura Harrier, meanwhile, incorporated a cardigan set in her own guest collection for LA favorite Reformation, proving that the appetite for polite knitwear is there.
Sexy cardis in the city have also been slipped on by Sarah Jessica Parker, who wore a fab striped Vivienne Westwood number on the set of And Just Like That…, and Blake Lively, a fangirl of her friend Gigi Hadid’s woolly passion project, Guest In Residence. Here in Manhattan, we’d invest in nostalgic investment pieces from Bode. The chintzier, the better.
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Still need convincing? Admit it, a cardigan is more appealing than the thought of a trench coat right now. Consider the preppy staple 2024’s equivalent of the transitional loafer–a baby step towards the season ahead. No one wants to be the last one wearing vest tops in the office come September.
