Knitwear

The Jumper You Will Still Own In Ten Years

And it will not be the one you planned on

There is always one jumper. Wrong colour, washed two hundred times, first thing reached for on any evening when nothing whatever is expected of you. Nobody chooses it. It simply emerges, usually as the most expensive thing in the drawer, which is either a coincidence or the entire point and we suspect the latter.

The bit you cannot see in a photograph

Merino, lambswool, alpaca and cashmere all behave differently, and none of it shows up in the shop. It shows up in about six weeks, when the good one has softened and the other has gone slightly bobbled at the elbow and is being worn only in the house. This is the rare category where the price is actually telling you something, tiresomely.

Knitted in numbers you could count

Chunky knits, fine gauge, cardigans, oversized things designed to be lived in, and one or two cut close enough to be worn out to dinner without explanation. Independent labels throughout, several knitting a few dozen at a time.

Wash it less than you think

Cool, gentle, dried flat, and considerably less often than instinct suggests. A night on a hanger by an open window does more than most machine cycles. Advice given universally and followed by almost nobody, ourselves firmly included.