Cardigans are an essential in any woman's wardrobe. They're the layering piece a lot of us genuinely could not live without. First you have your large woollen, bulky cardigans, designed to keep away the bitter cold of winter. Their long sleeves and extended bodies let you wrap up warm without looking like a large teddy bear. Quite often these are made with a chunky knit that adds extra warmth, and a lined one can double up as a jacket come spring, or through a mild winter.
Cardigans then come in at the opposite end of the spectrum, made in cotton and often smaller in cut. These are frequently in bright colours, or fabrics with delicate little flowers or patterns on them. They're ideal for summer, since they can be thrown on the moment the sun goes in and still keep you looking summery while covering the slight nip in the air. Let's be honest, it's the same story in London: you can't go ten minutes without the sun disappearing and a chance of rain turning up right behind it, so an emergency cardigan earns its keep. And then there's my favourite type of cardigan: my partner's. All men seem to own one of these days, and once you've slipped into one of their oversized cardigans, you'll never want to go back. They're so comfortable, and they make any lazy Sunday afternoon feel exactly as it should. You may not look your hottest in his cardigan, but you'll feel like you're curled up in bed, and something tells me he won't complain too hard either. They never can resist it when we parade round the house in their clothes.
So which one is actually "yours"?
Here's the part nobody tells you when you're standing in front of a rail of them: the type of cardigan you reach for has almost nothing to do with the season on the calendar and everything to do with what you're using it for. A chunky winter cardigan and a lightweight cotton one aren't really the same category of garment wearing two different outfits, they're solving two completely different problems. One is there to replace a coat on a short walk. The other exists purely so you have something to throw over bare shoulders the second a breeze picks up. If it's neither, and what you actually want is something smart enough for the office, a clean button-down knit does that particular job better than either extreme. Working out which job you actually need done first will save you from the classic mistake of buying a beautiful chunky cable-knit in July and then wondering why it lives in the back of the wardrobe for nine months of the year. A properly chunky cable-knit, like the one below, is worth the wardrobe space precisely because it's doing coat-adjacent work from November through February rather than sitting there looking nice.
A quick fabric cheat sheet
The fabric label matters more than most of us give it credit for, so it's worth a proper look before anything goes in the basket.
- Wool is the classic winter choice: warm, hard-wearing, and naturally a bit better at resisting pilling than synthetics, though a cheap, loosely spun wool will still bobble with enough wear.
- Cashmere is warmer than wool for its weight and noticeably softer against the skin, which is exactly why it costs more and why it needs gentler washing to earn its keep over the years.
- Cotton is the one for that in-between, three-seasons-a-year cardigan: breathable, easy to wash, but it won't do much for you once the temperature really drops.
- Acrylic and other synthetic blends keep the price down and are genuinely machine-washable without a second thought, but they're the fabrics most prone to pilling, so check reviews for that specific complaint before you buy one.
A lot of the nicer mid-range cardigans blend two of the above, wool with a little acrylic for structure, or cotton with a touch of cashmere, which is usually a sensible way to get most of the benefits of the expensive fibre without the full price tag or the full fuss of caring for it.
This season's shapes, if you want to shop with the trends
If you like to keep half an eye on what's actually new each year rather than just restocking the same silhouette, autumn's cardigan trends are leaning a few directions worth knowing about: short-sleeve cardigans styled almost like a fitted tee for transitional weather, classic stripes that move effortlessly from summer into autumn, cardigans with a bit of embellishment (think small pearl buttons or a single statement brooch), crochet styles that have moved away from bright colourwork toward a more neutral, structured look, and Fair Isle patterns you can wear buttoned up as the outfit's whole point or layered open over a plain top. None of that matters more than fit and fabric, but it's a nice place to start if you're choosing between two otherwise similar cardigans.
Keeping it looking new
The single biggest thing that ages a cardigan badly isn't wear, it's the wash. Wool and cashmere both do best hand-washed in cool water or on a wool cycle, laid flat to dry rather than hung, since a wet knit will stretch itself out of shape hanging from a peg. Cotton and acrylic are far more forgiving and will usually take a normal machine cycle without complaint, which is one more reason a straightforward cotton cardigan, like this one with actual pockets (rarer than it should be on cardigans), earns its keep as the one you reach for without thinking twice. Whatever the fabric, a fabric shaver is worth keeping in a drawer; a few minutes on a pilling cardigan brings it back to looking properly cared for rather than tired.
Whichever one you end up with, chunky and woollen, light and cotton, or borrowed from somebody else's wardrobe entirely, a good cardigan is one of the few things that works just as hard in October as it does in April.