How to wear a cardigan without looking like an old man

What would you say is the most controversial of all men's winter clothes? The red and green reindeer-smeared Christmas crewneck? The sadly emasculating sweater vest? The tennis sweater wrapped around the neck in the manner of a villain in an '80s teen comedy?

While all of the above are worthy contestants for this curious distinction, I must posit that the title is properly deserved by a sweater now coming back into season and into fashion: the lightweight cardigan.

See Also

The cardigan in general has suffered the slights of armchair fashion critics. Eating away at its reputation in much the same way moths nibble at wool yarn, detractors scoff at it as a garment appropriate only for the aged, the mousy, the soft. The recent popular success of the moderately chunky shawl-collar cardigan, as made by Rag & Bone, Ralph Lauren RRL, and others, delivers the haters a definitive rebuke. It is the coziest piece of chest-exalting knitwear a man is likely to find.

Meanwhile, cardigans made from more delicate yarn such as extra-fine merino wool and pima cotton continue to attract the same taunts. Sometimes these disses are fully well-deserved, but it's all in how you wear it.

Transseasonal garment

And the cardigan is very much worth wearing this time of year. It is easy to remove, an essential factor in your own personal climate control. Flexible in its flimsiness, the thin cardigan negotiates changeable weather with dignity if you treat it and yourself with the proper degree of respect.

The fundamental trouble with the lightweight cardigan sweater is that it is a replacement for a jacket that does not always suffice as a substitute. This is especially true if the cardigan is asked to replace a suit jacket, a task for which it is comically ill-prepared. A cardigan that matches the colour of your suit trousers is a cardigan that makes you look like you ineptly tried to perpetrate a crime against formality that is not even worth committing.

The Business Casual conundrum

In a business-casual context, it is brighter to conceive of the light cardigan as an easygoing brother of the odd jacket. You will seem altogether more sane in a sweater if there's some colour contrast between your upper and lower halves. The same principle applies to cardigans worn with suits as if they were vests.

The looks described immediately above are viable, if we're talking about introducing the cardigan to an ensemble featuring a dark suit and spread-collar shirt and a conventional silk tie. Still, they are potentially goofy. The cardigan more frequently calls for something on the order of a button-down collar and a knit tie. It most wants to be worn under a jacket that is quasi-professorial-made of corduroy or tweed.

Check out the gallery above to see the best men's cardigans to bust out this autumn.

Bloomberg

Executive Style