The cardigan’s origins are widely accepted to come from Major General James Thomas Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan. He served in the Crimea (now known as Ukraine) in 1854, when the UK & Russia were battling over the territory of the Ottoman Empire.
Throughout the campaign, Brudenell & his officers wore a ‘sweater coat’ that later became known as the ‘cardigan’.
The Earl’s cardigans were trimmed in fur & braids, so you could say he started the ‘military look’ cardigan. Very fashion forward of him!
A couple of years later in 1865 the Harvard University baseball team starting adding the letter ‘H’ to their sportswear. By 1900, the v-neck ‘letter’ cardigan was infiltrating off campus fashion. Companies soon started to use the new Ivy League ‘All American’ image in ad campaigns. The look was smart but casual & generally styled with loafers, slacks & starched white shirts.
In the 1920’s were Coco Chanel’s unstructured, collarless jackets (one of our favourites!). Loosely woven fabrics worn like a cardigan with matching skirts, the look is still as modern as it was then. The cardigans featured pockets & no buttons to be worn open & layered. Women’s casual wear was born!
During the 1950’s cardigans were reinvented as a twin set. Mainly in pastels, this look was soft & feminine, worn with poodle skirts. A look you may remember, & made iconic by movies like Grease, is the poodle skirt paired with cardigans adorned with images of poodles. How times have changed!
Although still worn as a twin set (minus the poodles!), cardigans have evolved into their own. No longer do cardies have one ‘look‘, they can be worn with almost anything & in any way! No matter what your size, shape or style you know there will always be a cardi to suit you.
Let’s start a cardigan revolution!
Source: The History of the Cardigan Sweater, written by Sara Kirchheimer – ehow.com
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