Are cardigans really a fashion mistake, or still practical for summer layering?

[Janey90]

With summer hopefully approaching, I realise I have a fair few cardigans in my wardrobe. Ideal for when I need an extra layer that isn’t too stiff or structured. And there are plenty on sale in the shops too. So is it really a fashion mistake to wear a cardigan, and if so, what is the alternative?

Im not a huge fan as prefer a jacket or jumper. I don’t like the oversized cardi look that seems to be popular where I live (mums in brightly printed dungarees and fleeces) but I do have a couple - a sort of soft jacket style black one with white edges and a striped sleeve/animal print body one that I always wear buttoned up.

Well, I suppose it all hinges on the (always ongoing on these S&B threads) difference between style & fashion ...??!!

Maybe @worldsgonemadnow is renowned for her fabulous ways with cardigans, & has a different one for every day & every occasion ... 😁

I'd be very interested to know how you interpret my post in such a way as to think I wear cardigans. I mean, even if you disagree with me about cardigans, how does that work?

@EleanorMc67 You could be right! Usually people who openly don’t care about fashion, don’t buy much. Most of my friends who look after their horses dont care too much about looks, and that’s fair enough. When they are showing, they and their horses are immaculate! But on MN it’s said to make others look shallow and inferior beings.

Style isn't fashion. This is "Style and Beauty", not "Walking Clotheshorse Fashion Slaves".

I actually do... 😉😂

I find cardigans v handy to wear discreetly under those fashionable but not very warm loose jackets of the moment

I have just ordered this ☺️
https://www.sezane.com/en-en/product/emile-cardigan/mottled-pink#size-XXS

Just so you know, that might have sounded funny in your head but in reality makes you seem a bit pathetic.

Oh, that’s lovely.

There seem to be those who think it was funny. We pathetics like to stick together.

Nothing is a mistake. Just wear what you want to wear proudly!

Exactly! They're perfect for this country and it's weird weather. As for shawls, who wants to wear one of them anyway!? 🤣🙈

@selffellatingouroborosofhateStyle most definitely is fashion. Clothes move with the times. Style isn’t static or we would still be wearing wimples and bustles. Style always emanates from fashion. How dare you describe people who like fashion as clotheshorse slaves. You have absolutely no idea why woman and indeed men like fashion! It’s an important business and it drives style.

Clothes move with the times.

There's a big difference between abandoning historic styles because the Industrial Revolution made them impractical (wimples don't go well with operating power looms and ordinary working women could never wear a bustle even when they were "in") and throwing out your skinny jeans because someone at WSGN decided that you should.

I still seek out nineties-style bootcuts because they suit me and there's no practical reason to stop wearing them. By contrast, I stopped wearing long coats at 30, not because the fashions changed but because I learned to drive and needed outerwear that wouldn't get stuck in the car door. Clothing changes because of changes in how we live. We all stopped wearing big hats because of cars becoming commonplace, not because of the dictats of Vogue and WSGN.

This is gorgeous!

Hmmm. I disagree.

Style is personal & individual, & though it relates to fashion & will often have some connection to it, it's much older & more innate to us - as humans - than fashion.

In fact, I would argue that it's more the other way around, & that style is what drives fashion. We have a need to express ourselves - make-up & clothing have been a part of our creative expression for thousands of years. (Clothes have evolved from merely functional animal hides to decorating with shells & dyes, into the creation of natural & then man-made textiles - & the multifarious ways that we cut & drape & dye & embroider & knit & otherwise transform these into what we wear.)

Icons of style - sometimes within the fashion business like Coco Chanel - or more often outwith it (such as Katharine Hepburn, David Bowie, Brigitte Bardot or Kurt Cobain) are the REAL drivers of fashion.

Sometimes they can even exist almost entirely outside what's considered fashion - for instance Frida Kahlo, or Little & Big Edie of Grey Gardens - people who used what was at hand or easily available to express their self-identity, as it was as essential to them as food & water.

So, to me, style & fashion are most definitely two different - but interconnected - things.

@EleanorMc67 You cannot possibly have individual style without it being fashion in the first place. It might be fashion of 20 years ago, but fashion it was. As I said, if it didn’t exist, and you didn’t buy it, clothes shops would never change their stock! You but fashion even if you won’t admit it. Chanel ran a huge “fashion” house! It was commercial. Bowie had stage clothes. His primate clothes were fashion of the day. A few famous people stand out for their style but the vast majority of people don’t. They don’t copy the style mavericks either in any meaningful way. I saw David Bowie in his early days and no, we didn’t dress like him! Biba was far more influential. Fashion.

It’s true street fashion can influence high fashion but it’s most likely Dior influences Zara!

By contrast, I stopped wearing long coats at 30, not because the fashions changed but because I learned to drive and needed outerwear that wouldn't get stuck in the car door.

That's one of the strangest comments I've read on here.

I’ve just bought this, looks better on than in the photos. I have lots of chunky cardigans which I wear a lot but wanted something a bit more lightweight for summer evenings.

Only absolute twats opine and dictate what other women should and shouldn’t wear. If you like them, wear them

Really? Does it strike you as "strange" that someone chained to the timetables of public transport, routinely waiting a long time at the "change" bus stop of a two-bus journey, would want a long coat to stay warm? Or does it strike you as strange that the same person driving a car would want a shorter coat for comfort, ease of using the pedals, and not closing the car door with part of the coat sticking out?

Yes you can. It's called "learning pattern cutting and making your own clothes".

I was absolutely sure you were going to say that backstage after the show Grace Jones had got changed and was wearing a cardigan.

I could see her in something like this one:

www.buckobybobble.com/product-page/tarantula-machine-knit-cardigan

I know it's a popular narrative on this board that style has nothing to do with fashion and that only the most vacuous take any notice of the latter. Yet in real life, the people I know who dress stylishly almost all keep an eye on fashion to some degree. Of course some are more into it than others but they're all aware. Most just take the bits they like from it and leave the rest.

The only exceptions I can think of are some women I know who are into crafting, especially the heritage crafts, and who are coming at it from a different direction. They're still not too high and mighty to chat about fashion though.

I can also think of very few people in public life who I'd say are genuinely style first and fashion second. Even in the world of fashion, I immediately think of Chanel and Vivienne Westwood and then I start to struggle. It takes exceptional talent and creativity and a certain type of personality, I think, to truly plough your own style path.

As for Bowie in the 70s, I understand it was his then wife, Angie, who was the real creative force behind his image.