it's raining, apologies for the terrible indoor photos - my house COULD NOT BE MORE YELLOW
Sweater: Aidez by Cirilia Rose; madelinetosh erin in antique lace; my notes and modifications on Vieux Dentelle
Dress: Alice + Olivia; similar style for this season
Shoes: Manolo Blahnik black patent, open-toe d'orsay pumps (that was a mouthful); similar style by Via Spiga, on sale for the big-footed by Gianmarco Lorenzi, and absolutely not on sale by Christian Louboutin
Toes: OPI A Roll in the Hague
Lips: Bobbi Brown Art Stick in Rose Brown
Take a look on Ravelry at the sweater patterns with the most projects and those deemed most popular and you'll notice something: there are A TON of open front cardigans. I'm wearing one today and I have made more than a few others. I would say that you can't swing a cat (and knitters love them some cats) in a room full of knitters without hitting at least half a dozen open front cardigans. I know knitters who describe their open front cardigans as THEIR FAVORITE SWEATER. And I am saying now, on September 16th, that I still don't understand why.
I assure you that the dress I'm wearing underneath my Aidez is really really pretty - I mean look how cute it is and, I would argue that my slightly more exaggerated hourglass shape is flattered even more by it than on this blonde famous person I feel certain I am supposed to recognize. And this wasn't the dress I intended to wear today. I had my DVF Kaley dress on at first until I realized that (and I'm so glad there are no disagree buttons on my blog): open front cardigans look terrible with anything approaching a structured outfit. They're just sloppy full stop. Which is fine with jeans or a housedress or that drop-waisted flannel dress they keep trying to sell you at Madewell that you keep refusing to entertain because you are no longer in high school and besides you already tried on a pair of Doc Martens laceups and remembered that they weren't flattering the first time around because you have small, autonomous islands for feet.
But I can be more accommodating. You know where else open front cardigans look ok? On the bodies of people without breasts and hips. And I'm not saying that pejoratively. If you have a slender-hipped figure with proportional breasts, open front cardigans are a-ok on you. Because they neither stubbornly refuse to remain firmly on the outside of your bust, nor do they flare out ridiculously when they meet your hips. Much like jeans and tucked in white button downs, I might have to come to terms with the fact that the open front cardigan will never be part of my weekday wardrobe. I always think I look sloppy and I always think the outfit would look better with a more tailored piece.
Now part of this is also the fault of my wardrobe in that it is long on flared dresses and straight skirts; had I more shifts, it's possible I would be less confused by what to do with my open front cardigans. However, even with the cute shirtdress I originally photographed for the Aidez FO shots, there's still a degree of not-quite-polished that upsets me. What is more upsetting is that there are a number of open front cardigan patterns I both like AND want to make: Kara, slanted Sleeven, Soubrette - though the last one I have way higher hopes for since there is an accompanying hip flare in the pattern that looks as though it might fit over both my capacious hips and flared skirts.
The other part of the problem could well be sizing - perhaps given my shape, I should knit a size larger, but dear god, what if that isn't the answer? Then I have an even sloppier FO and I'm ragey because I spent time making it and I could have had a lovely pullover instead. But I think what makes me really feel like the last kid picked on the dodgeball team is that I seem to be 100% alone in this view. Both knitters I know in person and those I only see online have love affairs with this style. Sometimes I think their FOs look lovely, but more of the time I feel like the mom admonishing her kids to tuck in their shirts. I, personally, cannot do sloppy-chic, but I don't think most of the population can. So I'll spend the day fidgeting with Aidez and searching both my brain and the ravelry database, for cardigans more suited to me lifestyle.
P.S. Who the hell drew on my dining room wall? I have a pretty strict no children-with-crayons rule.
Okay, I have Thoughts and Feelings here.
ReplyDelete1. I think for ladies shaped like you (or me), an open-front cardigan is only successful if the fronts *could* close, but simply don't. My Bailey cardigan, for instance, has fronts that, when combined, are actually wider than the back of the sweater. As a result, it stays put over my boobs. Likewise my Mountain View Cardigan, which I have no pictures of, but which has buttons that I simply never use.
2. I agree that open-front over a structured dress/fuller skirt is not ideal. I have had good luck with drapey, open-front cardigans over jersey dresses, or over pencil skirts and knit blouses, but not so much over anything that has very much volume on its own. However, I think that a densely-knit open-front cardigan that is not too long can function as a kind of blazer, and do well with more structured layers underneath. My Farmer's Market Cardigan, which may have been destroyed by moths chez Dad, worked really well with a tweed trumpet-shape skirt I have.
3. I think Aidez, with it's larger gauge and longer length, is perhaps just too casual of a sweater for it to fit in your work wardrobe. Fits okay into mine, but I pretty regularly wear jeans to work on days I don't interact with the public.
I agree with your open-front cardi opinion. For me, it's often the issue of the darned sweater just won't stay on! As Emily pointed out, if it could button, it's more likely to be something I will/can wear. If it's meant to be worn open, I'm not likely to knit it (to avoid the ragey feeling you mentioned).
ReplyDeleteThank you both for weighing in and I will confess, there were projects of both of yours (truly) I was thinking of when trying not to say that ALL open front cardigans are confounding. Emily, for you it was the bailey cardigan which I don't really have any gripes about (as for your Bluesands, well, I don't get that sweater, but it makes you super happy ergo it makes me happy); Gayle, yours was the two-tone featherweight which has a lot of flair to make up for elements of it that I suspect would drive me nuts (the rolling up fronts!).
ReplyDeleteI confess that when I see a really well done open front cardigan, I am insanely jealous - then I remind myself of the insane jealousy I feel at crisp white shirts tucked into blue jeans where the wearer doesn't look like a lumpy lampshade. Some things aren't meant to be (like me and leather pants - I'm so glad I realized that before buying leather pants).
Yelena, I completely agree with you on the open fronted cardigan.
ReplyDeleteI find the fronts of an open front just bunch in between my breasts and underarms, and there is not much space there! I am really drawn to the construction of the Slanted sleeven, and intend to modify it to make a buttown down cardigan.
Kate, I really like this one http://www.ravelry.com/projects/dutte/slanted-sleeven (and not just for the excellent yellow color)!
DeleteThanks - what great, extensive notes!
DeleteYessss. So with you on the open-front cardigan. I don't understand them AT ALL. Why would you make a cardigan that can't be fastened? I'd forever be tugging it around myself and then mad that it won't stay closed. This could partly be because I live in the frozen North and am always cold. But seriously, it's annoying to have something flapping about your midsection all day. Then again, I'm just not much of a cardigan person in general.
ReplyDeleteI look at my favorite, and most worn projects, and they're generally the pullovers also. I seem to always reach for a blazer where other people read for cardigans even though I know there are some outfits where a cardigan would better suit - I just haven't yet found the perfect one (though strangely the hey Girl cardigan comes closest).
DeleteOh, Girlfriend. You are NOT alone. I love the look of the open front cardigans on many people...they just don't happen to look good on me. The fronts invariably end up hanging open on either side of my bust...a look my husband enjoys, but unless I want to only wear the sweater at home, not one that really works for me!
ReplyDeleteI did recently try on a Hitofude Cardigan; the shoulder shaping is such that it MIGHT work on me, but the jury is still out on that.
LOVE your blog!
xxoo
KellyInTexas
I made a Kara (Cecily Glowic MacDonald pattern) in a WWFY deal and I almost like it on me. I've meant to do another one at some point, and recently I've considered subbing the hitofude lace pattern in (because I have a lot of THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS about Hitofude and very very few of them will win me new friends). I will certainly give you unsolicited advice about that project :)
DeleteI have a number of open-front cardigans, none of which I wear open. I close them with a pin or stick, without exception, except if I am sleeping in them, and prefer not to stab myself. Most of my cardigans that button have the buttonbands sewn up over the section of buttons that are always buttoned, with any discretionary top or bottom buttons left alone. This ensures closure without gaping. I will solicit your advice when and if I ever get to Hitofude, which I am plotting to knit without the shorter/wider fronts.
ReplyDeleteI've tried the stick/pin thing, but it just isn't my style - there's something a little more boho about it than I can convincingly pull off, even though I bought a really pretty closure thingy at one of the yarn shows. I will happily give you my many Thoughts and Feelings about hitofude at length, but for public consumption let's just say that I am unconvinced that a construction that makes every wearer look as though she is hunched over, is the most flattering of pieces.
DeleteNothing drives me more BONKERS than not having closures on cardigan patterns. Everytime I put on a cardigan? I want to button or close or hook or *whatever* the thing. Every. time. And no, a "shawl pin" or poke my boob DPN is not good enough people!! Ranting here, but this is a pet peeve of mineeeeeeee.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could successfully pull off the "oh, I just grabbed this belt and insouciantly closed it over my open-front sweater and it, and I, look perfect," but I cannot.
DeleteI have tried.
Repeatedly.