Diet Coke Light asked myself, Angela Scanlon, Suzanne Jackson and Liz Greehy to write about Irish style over the Winter and this is the second of my posts (the first you can catch here).
Ah, the jumper. Me ‘aul mucker. Similar to a cup of tea, in terms of it’s warm embrace, reliability and timelessness, you can’t beat a good, solid geansai. A little ‘ol fashioned, a little staid perhaps, but the jumper has been knocking around for some time now. Thankfully there’s been a ferocious renewal of interest for this Winter (and for the Irish…the upcoming Spring and Summer). The cool kids on the street have taken ownership and revived the naff, woolly, shoulder-padded 80′s jumpers. The ironic media set are championing the so-uncool-it’s-cool Christmas jumper. And the fashpack have fallen for the sleek minimalism of Cos and Zara versions. Oh the jumper!
Take a plunge into grunge with a billowing maxi and oversized bobble knit, cinched in with a belt of your choice; create some rips for added authenticity. Add some high drama by pairing a cotton university style or a man’s merle knit with some sequinned shorts – day to night or night to day. Layer with a buttoned up shirt, a sleeveless blazer, some tailored trews (perhaps a fedora?) – and bob’s your uncle…Miranda Kerr off-duty super-chic. Aside from all these fashionable strides, don’t you just LOVE it when fashion and practicality come together?! Warmth, cosiness, insouciance…all wrapped up in fashion forward fabulousness. Only thing, if you’re grappling with something woolly…try not to move too fast…wool + heat + perspiration + flustered anxiety at sudden arrival of perspiration = distinctively unpleasant smell that only copious amounts of Chanel no 5 can cover…
But aside from the reinstatement of the simple jumper, this year, jumpers have gone MAD. Plain mad. We got studding and spikes, we have rips and shreds, mixed textures and patterns (in the one garment – I kid you not!), we have pictures of fries, prints of 80’s icons, sequinned poodles, roaring Rottweilers. A smorgasbord of barking jumper brilliance. I’m thinking about getting one with my face printed on one. Too much? Not enough!
And should I get an unexpected visit from the Tooth Fairy, I’m all over this decadent cashmere and silk sweater from Irish designer Sian Jacobs over at Style Tonic. Some leather skinnies and a studded collar and it’s lux-grunge-maximus.
