the $25 cashmere sweaters i've been collecting this winter via resale
because the knitwear market is currently a greenwashed dumpster fire...
Is it just me, or is everyone suffering from shitty sweater fatigue this winter?
There’s been a lot of drama in the sweater world recently. Alden Wicker, sustainable fashion journalist, shared her experience getting a cease-and-desist from cashmere darling brand Quince which I’ve seen so many fashion creators/bloggers recommend. Their signature product is a $50 cashmere sweater. The short of it: it’s impossible to produce a $50 cashmere sweater sustainably, and Quince participates in loads of greenwashing to cover up their unsavory business practices.
The comments on Wicker’s video are telling. People are picking up on the scam that is Big Cashmere.
Then there’s Anthropologie. They sent out a newsletter in December titled “Less Itchy Than Vintage.” This is the body of the email, which is intended to make shoppers associate vintage/used/older clothing with itch. Very cheap and lazy copywriting on their part, and harmful to the secondhand/sustainable fashion movement.
So according to their consumer psychology, that’s supposed to make you want to pay $98 for one of their 100% synthetic mocknecks. Make it make sense…
Brands are floundering when it comes to knitwear (they have been for a while) and consumers are starting to catch on.
I think about the Memorable Sweaters in my life. The first sweater brand I was ever truly enchanted by was Lauren Manoogian back in 2017. I was introduced to her knits through Need Supply, during a time when I was learning about the cheap quality of poly-acrylic abominations and craving something that felt and looked undeniably well-made. Her stuff is expensive, and for a new college grad especially so—but you have to remember this was during the golden days of TRR when you could get $80 Lauren Manoogian on a lucky day. I bought an alpaca-pima oatmeal colored cardigan and wore it near daily, cosplaying as a rich Monterey mom from Big Little Lies. Sadly, I lost that sweater. I have no idea where it went and was quite sad about it for some time. I did collect her pieces for a while through TRR, but realized the hard way that most of her bulkier pieces (esp the “One Size) knits were simply too heavy on my shoulders and neck. I now know that what I value in knits is lightweight but very warm.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a magical knitwear experience like my first Lauren Manoogian cardigan. That changed this winter though. Through some serious Reddit digging, I was determined to find a solid cashmere brand easily available via resale at affordable prices (so…not Loro Piano or Bruno Cucinelli lol).
I took a chance on this chocolate brown cashmere sweater (Men’s XL) for $25 and was thoroughly impressed. I wear it to bed sometimes. And no, it’s not itchy.
That was enough to convince me to find a cardigan from the same brand. I found a royal blue, also $25.
Then I became an obsessive collector and checked for these every few days to find colors and styles I liked. My latest acquisition is a powder blue cashmere vest that looks so Prada. It was $16.
