Why the Unsexy Cardigan Is Poised to Make a Comeback This Winter

“If you don’t feel comfortable in a plunging sweater, skintight jeans, and killer heels, go home and change,” Inès de la Fressange once declared. What this iconic Parisian personality (she was an influencer long before the term existed) didn’t explain was what you should go home and change into. She may not have said it in so many mots, but we are sure De la Fressange meant a cozy, comfy cardigan—the sort of thing sadly associated in the public imagination with Mister Rogers, an icon of a different sort, but in this case we mean a sweater far cooler than a typical Rogers number! Because would Fred pair his cardi with cashmere leggings? Would he put a silky, lacy camisole under his sweater and lose the boring button-down? Would he, even if he were feeling particularly sultry lolling in front of the fire, just pop his cardigan over his sexy bare bod?

Temperatures are plummeting and the lure of staying permanently indoors is more and more appealing, but you don’t have to spend the quiet days between Christmas and New Year’s wrapped in a boring bathrobe, do you? Especially not when you can don a baby blue popcorn-stitched cardigan from the adorably named Love Shack Fancy, or L.L.Bean’s classic oatmeal fisherman’s sweater, or a Ganni Fair Isle–sleeve fantasia, or Acne’s heathery gray number, or Sandro’s black-and-white–checked version, all of which manage to transcend saggy and reside in the land of chic.

And really, how many Marvelous Mrs. Maisel episodes can you watch over and over? How much hot chocolate can you imbibe before cabin fever almost does you in? Regardless of snow squalls and slippery streets, eventually you will want to get out of the house. In which case, these cardigans can enjoy a lovely second life buried happily under your puffer as you navigate the drifts.