Fashion

You definitely need to have this sweater and here's why

Sale, so you want something. With good courage, I headed to ‘the city’ last weekend - funny that I still call the center ‘the city’, I just live in that city. Anyway, I dove in with enthusiasm into the racks to come home with - drumroll - a sports grey sweater. Again.

I have now become a serial offender when it comes to being enchanted by a sports grey sweater. No matter how simple, I can hardly imagine a more fantastic piece of clothing than that, so I buy them time and again. You can dress them down and up super well - or no, I need to turn it around: a mottled grey sweater makes chic pants and skirts a bit more street, is the perfect casual canvas for striking jewelry, and looks cool and casual with jeans. Such a simple always-good sweater is a must-have. Without print or with. And definitely with raglan sleeves, that looks the best. Great to wear with different silver chains with a little something on them, without anything on jeans or bare legs or with a blouse underneath. Well, I have them, and how.

”It has been worn for generations, so you can't go wrong, it's a true classic”

The thing is heavily American, a cornerstone of the wardrobe of high school kids, just like a baseball jacket and jeans - definitely a style to love. It has been worn for generations, so you can't go wrong, it's a true classic. One that transcends subcultures, and that's quite impressive. Some actually use it for sports (but I have no interest in that, so I don't do it), basketball players and eighties kids cut off the sleeves to wear it over another sweater, punks wrote slogans on it and made holes in it, hip hoppers pressed letters on it in the eighties that formed, for example, their rap name or crew name, and metal dudes wore it under their patch jackets. And fashion lovers now use the sweat to tone down overly hype clothing pieces.

My love for the sports grey sweater began with Jennifer Beals, who peeled off her dance clothes in front of her admirer with the help of such a sweater in the delightful eighties film Flashdance, without showing any skin. Hers was oversized, and super sexy thanks to the scissors, with a wide neck and curling fabric at the sleeves. There is an iconic photo of it, a still from the film, and I can't imagine a sexier piece of clothing than that. The sweater conceals and reveals, due to the way the wide neck subtly falls off a bare shoulder. The bright grey-white is surprisingly soft in color and looks particularly beautiful on Beals, as if she is wearing a soft focus filter. That sweater, the way it falls and fits, that is my holy grail of clothing.

And now I have a new one, from American Vintage. One where I don't have to cut out the neck, because it's already quite wide. But it's not a Flashdance sweater, I'm still looking for that. Do you also see the beauty of such a sweater? Here is my top-3 of favorites:

1. American Apparel

The California Fleece Raglan sweater in Heather Grey is beautifully basic, with a not too tight neck and in a nice light color. A bit thin, but a real classic. Take it a bit large (L), that looks the best. A good one for summer is the Tri-blend Raglan in Athletic Grey, a thin and flowing short sweater with a feminine wide neck.

2. Hanes

An American classic, which is especially easy to score second-hand - or new in the land of unlimited possibilities, although ‘keeping up with the times’ has not done Hanes any favors, it has become a lot more frumpy. The best ones are for men, because they are nice and wide, but a hit are also the sweaters from Hanes Her Way, a women's line that has been around since 1986, with wider necks than the sometimes too tight crewnecks for men. You can always cut into them, by the way, although I don't do that with every sweater. Seen on the bodies of Jackie Chan, Marisa Tomei, and Charlie Sheen. On the bodies of who not, actually?

3. American Vintage

American Vintage is a pro at grey sweaters, which are always in their collection. They are often not classic, but beautifully tempting and on trend: sometimes short and wide made of very thick fabric, then again thinner with an extremely wide neck and elastic so it looks nice and blousy, made of cool waffle cotton with almost batwing sleeves for variation or with narrow cut sleeves and a wider body. I need them all.

Written by Kalinka Hählen