Styling · The Knit Edit
The Cable Knit
Buy the fibre, not the size. Cleaner cables, a tidier shoulder, and a knit that works in October rather than January.
Buy the fibre, not the size. Cleaner cables, a tidier shoulder, and a knit that works in October rather than January.
Everyone has a bad cable knit somewhere. Mine was navy, enormous, bought in a hurry, and I wore it exactly twice before admitting it made me look like a duvet with legs.
The ones being made now aren't that. The cables are cleaner, the shoulders tidier, the shape relaxed rather than vast — warm without adding bulk. A small change on paper and a completely different sweater in practice.
Which is why you can wear one in October. A cable knit used to be a January garment, dug out when it got properly cold. This version layers instead of insulates, so it works in the weeks when the mornings have turned and the afternoons haven't caught up.
The mistake is buying for size. Reaching for the biggest one because bulk reads as warmth, and ending up with something that wears you. It doesn't need to be enormous to do its job.
So the decision is the fibre. Cashmere is the expensive end and the soft one. Wool gives the cable its edges. A good blend borrows from both. And cotton is what you wear now, while it's still mild.
This isn't an edit for a statement knit. It's for the woman who'll still have it on in April — the cashmere, the wool, the blend and the cotton.
Mine is the Loro Piana in brown. It's the classic one and it'll still be in the wardrobe in ten years, which isn't something you can say about most of what gets bought in August.— K.W., Editor-in-Chief
The Row Nanni, black trousers, flats. No jewellery competing with the cable.
Brown cashmere, the darkest jean you own, a gold watch. That's the whole outfit.
Cotton cardigan over a white shirt at lunch, off again by four. October weather is the entire point.
Every piece in the edit — tap to shop.
Where the money goes, and where it's most obviously worth it. Loro Piana twice, then Gabriela Hearst, Magda Butrym, Lisa Yang and Arch4.
Wool is what gives a cable its edges — the shoulder has to stay clean or you're back to the old version. Ninel, The Row, Bottega Veneta, FRAME and Aisling Camps.
Tap any piece below to shop the whole edit.
For the weeks cashmere is too much and cotton isn't enough. Zegna, LOEWE and Nili Lotan.
Wear these now, while it's still mild enough to. RRL, Haikure and Sporty & Rich.
Every piece in this edit, by the houses behind it. Explore them all.
Buy the fibre, not the size. A good cable knit doesn't need to be enormous to keep you warm — and the smaller one is the one you'll still be wearing in April.— ESVRA