A letter from a reader
At 65, I threw out the cardigan I had kept in my car for nine years
I bought it in a hurry in 2017, in the sort of shop you go into because it is next to where you parked. My daughter and I were going to a matinee and I knew the theater would be freezing.
It came home with me, and then it moved to the back of the car, and then it simply stayed there. Nine summers. I must have put that cardigan on two hundred times, and I did not like it once.
You know the kind. Grey going on beige, no shape to speak of, sleeves that had gone soft at the cuff. Every time I pulled it on over something I had actually chosen that morning, I could feel the whole outfit go quiet.
Then I noticed Peggy at the library book sale
Peggy has volunteered at the sale for as long as I have been going, and she is not a woman who fusses about clothes. She was behind the paperback table in a cardigan I could not stop looking at.
Soft floral knit, a V at the neck, worn open over a plain white top. It did not look like a cardigan somebody had grabbed on the way out. It looked like the reason the rest of it worked.
She told me it was from Dorothy & June, a small boutique here in Charleston. I looked them up that evening, expecting the usual, and instead found ten of them. A cropped one in a soft viscose. A long one that comes past the hip. An oversized wool. A white crochet with little flowers for buttons. I ordered the floral, the same as Peggy's, which I hope she has forgiven me for.
What happened at the supper on the water
My granddaughter turned nineteen at the end of July and wanted supper on a porch at Shem Creek, which meant sitting out until the light went and the breeze came up off the water.
I put it on somewhere around nine, the way you do. And my son, who has not noticed a single thing I have worn in forty years, looked over and asked whether it was new.
That is not the part I keep coming back to, though. What I keep thinking about is that I put it on without bracing for it. For nine years there had been a small flinch in that moment, the bit where you feel yourself stop looking like the person who left the house. It simply was not there.
I have worn it nearly every evening since. Not because it is warm, exactly. Because the sun goes down here and the porch cools off and you want something, and now the something is nice.
Three things I have learned since
One. A cardigan is the last decision you make. You are already dressed. You are already at the door, or already cold. Nobody is thinking clearly at that point, and whatever you reach for sets the tone for everything underneath it. Get that one thing right and it quietly fixes clothes you already own.
Two. The V is doing more than I understood. Every cardigan I had owned closed high and cut straight across, which shortens you. This one falls open in a long V, and it keeps the line going instead of chopping it in half. I did not know that was the difference. I only knew the old one made me look shorter.
Three. Weight matters more than warmth. I had one cardigan for the whole year, which is why it was always slightly wrong. There is a light cropped one for August and a proper wool for when it turns, and they are not meant to be the same garment.
About the price
Here is the part I would want to know.
The cardigans run $47.95 to $69.95 at the moment. They were $89.95 to $139.95, which is nearer what I would expect to pay for knitwear that holds its shape.
Mine came to $47.95. I have spent more than that on a cardigan I actively disliked, so I did not agonise over it for long.
They have their summer sale on, which is the only reason the prices look like that. I read the reviews first, the way I imagine you are doing now. Just over eight hundred of them, and the thing that struck me was how many women said they had almost not ordered. Shipping was free and there is a thirty-day return window, so the worst case was a trip to the post office.
I did not need the worst case. The long one, the one that comes past the hip, is sitting in my cart as I write this.
What I would tell you if we were friends
If you were sitting on my porch and asked me, this is what I would say.
Go and look at whatever you keep for being cold in. The one in the car, or over the back of the kitchen chair, or the one you take to your daughter's because her house is always freezing. You did not choose it. You settled on it years ago and stopped noticing.
That is the one worth replacing, because it is the one you actually wear. Not the good coat you put on four times a year. The soft thing you reach for without looking.
The sale is on now, and once a style sells through, that is the end of it. They also take a little more off when you buy more than one, which is how the long one ended up in my cart.
There is nothing in the trunk of my car now but a windshield scraper I have never once needed in Charleston.
Amy
Floral Knit Cardigan
★★★★★From 847 happy customer reviews
$89.95 $47.95
- Vintage V-neck in a soft floral knit
- Falls open in a long line rather than cutting across
- Layers over a tee and jeans, or over a summer dress
- Ten styles in the collection — cropped, longline, oversized wool, white crochet
- Buy more and save a little more at checkout
- Free insured shipping
Summer sale on now. Once a style sells through, it is gone.
Amy Johnson is 65 and lives in Charleston. She is not a fashion writer.
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