Styling · The Knit Edit
The Cable Knit
The one that works in October, not just January. Twenty-one of them, from cashmere at four thousand down to cotton at a hundred and fifty.
The one that works in October, not just January. Twenty-one of them, from cashmere at four thousand down to cotton at a hundred and fifty.
Everyone has a bad cable knit somewhere. Mine was navy, enormous, bought in a hurry, and I wore it exactly twice before admitting it made me look like a duvet with legs.
So here's the good news. The ones being made now aren't that. The cables have got cleaner, the shoulders tidier, the shapes relaxed rather than vast — a modern line that's warm without adding bulk. Which is a small change on paper and a completely different sweater in practice.
It also means you can wear one in October. That's the real shift. A cable knit used to be a January garment, something you dug out when it got properly cold. This version layers instead of insulates, so it works right now, in the weeks when the mornings have turned and the afternoons haven't caught up.
And it goes everywhere. Desk, dinner, weekend, same sweater — which at these prices is the only argument that really matters.
The thing to decide is the fibre. Cashmere is the expensive end and the soft one. Wool is the sturdy one. Blends sit in between and the good ones borrow from both. And cotton is what you wear now, while it's still mild, over a shirt or on its own.
Twenty-one below — the cashmere, the wool, the blend and the cotton. Most of them will end up with jeans and flats, and there's nothing wrong with that.
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This is where the money goes, and where it's most obviously worth it. Loro Piana does two — a cashmere blend in white and a straight cashmere in brown — and they're the reference point everyone else is measured against. Gabriela Hearst and Magda Butrym sit just below. Then Lisa Yang, who makes three here at three very different prices, and Arch4 at four hundred and thirty, which is the one to start with if you've never spent this much on a sweater before.
Wool is what gives a cable its edges. The Row's Nanni is a plain black crew-neck and about as quiet as a sweater gets. Bottega Veneta does two, an oversized one in neutrals and a cream, and Ninel's is cropped, which changes the whole proportion of whatever you put under it. FRAME's funnel neck does the work of a scarf. Aisling Camps' Briar is the one under five hundred.
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Three that borrow from more than one fibre. Zegna's is linen, cashmere and silk together, which makes it the lightest thing in this edit by some way. LOEWE's V-neck comes in pink, and a pink cable knit is a decision rather than a default. Nili Lotan's Silvie is cashmere in pale blue — eight hundred and fifty, and the one you'll wear the most.
Wear these now, while it's still warm enough to. RRL's is a cardigan, so it goes over a shirt and off again halfway through the day. Haikure trims theirs with denim, which sounds like a lot and isn't. And Sporty & Rich does two — a cotton jumper in white and a cashmere at a hundred and forty-nine, which is the least expensive thing in this edit and doesn't look it.
Every piece in this edit, by the houses behind it. Explore them all.
Mine is the Loro Piana in brown. It's the classic one and it'll still be in the wardrobe in ten years, which isn't something you can say about most of what gets bought in August.— K.W., Editor-in-Chief
Buy the fibre, not the size. A good cable knit doesn't need to be enormous to keep you warm — and the smaller one is the one you'll still be wearing in April.— ESVRA