RIP, Mr. Fred Rogers. Did you ever know that those knit sweaters you would hang so neatly in your closet would pave the way for the young and hip of today?
A young man and his friend asked me today if cardigans were still “in”. That was such a difficult question for me to answer, because often in fashion you are dealing with multiple levels of “in”-ness. As stupid as that sounds, it really is what happens.
For instance, gaucho pants? They are not “in”, nor have they ever been “in”, from a designer standpoint. They give off camel toe, they are unflattering, they look frumpy — they just aren’t as flattering as tailored pants. It’s like a common joke with the fashionistas — “Yeah, that’s hideous, but at least they’re not gaucho pants.” However, these pants struck a chord with midwest women a few years ago and the debocle of a trend stayed with them for a long ass time. So, in a sense, they were “in” in those circlese in the midwest.
Then you also have the idea of “in” being mainsteam. Whatever you see plastered on bebe.com or what you see on an Express mannequin. Maybe you are thinking to yourself, “Hey, that’s kinda cool. It’s popping up everywhere.”
Then there’s the “in” of American Apparel, a company that tends to bring back old trends that we made fun of back in the day, but they resurrect it in a way like it was never living before. Usually, especially in the midwest, the trend gets made fun of, but then it catches on in a big way in a year, but by then the company has moved on. High waisted leggings are an excellent example of this, especially the sparkly ones. Now all the sorority sisters are loving them, all the way down to the sophomore in high school. But now the company has moved on to highlighter, acid wash, and bagginess.
So, that makes the answer to the cardigan question… cardigans are still “in”, they’ll be around for awhile, but as far as being “fresh” or ahead of the game, they are not.
I forgot my point.
My point is that cardigans are pretty safe, but if you are trying to stay ahead of the game, you might want to move on. Puppets used as gloves maybe? It worked for Mr. R.