Is it still too early to wear knitwear?
"A wool knit"
When you hear these words, you cannot help but imagine winter clothing. I do too.
When you hear wool, you think of coats and scarves. Knitwear especially brings to mind something you wear once the temperature has dropped further.
But when you work at a clothing shop, you realize that this is not necessarily the case.
Wool is not only a winter material, and knitwear is not only for the depths of winter.
When I actually wear it throughout the seasons, I find that I can wear it for longer than expected, depending on the temperature and humidity that day.
Hello. This is Tomioka from cliché.
Today, I would like to write about a knit made from wool, cashmere, and linen - three materials.
<cantáte>
" Quiet Season Crew-Knit "
¥99,000TAX IN
When you hear wool knit, you imagine winter.
But, 75% wool, 15% cashmere, 10% linen.
Hearing that changes your impression a little, doesn't it?
That is precisely why I would like you to look at the knit introduced this time now, rather than waiting for the middle of winter.
When you hear that three kinds of material have been blended, you may imagine something in which each characteristic comes through more clearly.
Cashmere would be extremely soft. Linen would be dry and cool. Wool would be warm.
You might imagine a knit in which each material asserts itself clearly in that way.
But when you actually touch it, it feels slightly different.
There is linen's dry sensation within the warmth of wool, layered with the softness of cashmere.
None of them takes the forefront on its own.
It feels as though you are touching wool, and it also has cashmere's softness. Yet your fingertips retain the slightly dry sensation characteristic of linen.
It is a knitted fabric in which each of the three materials remains present in its own subtle way.
That is why its appearance is surprisingly quiet.
The use of cashmere does not give it an obviously soft appearance, nor does the linen make it look light in the way spring and summer garments do.
At first glance, it probably looks like a very ordinary knit.
But, once you touch it and wear it, you gradually begin to notice the difference within that ordinariness.
I think that is where the interest of this knit lies.
The shoulders are dropped just slightly.
However, the width and length have not been exaggerated to make it a so-called oversized knit.
At its foundation is an entirely basic balance. There is just a little room at the shoulders, without following the body's lines too closely.
That is all.
The ribbing is not made to grip tightly, either.
Rather than wearing it with the knit hem stopping at the waist and the fabric pooling heavily there, both the sleeves and hem fall naturally downward.
It does not bunch up too much. It does not spring back. It simply falls quietly.
Once you actually wear it, this balance feels remarkably comfortable.
The garment itself does not push to the forefront.
It sits neatly under a jacket, while also working perfectly well worn on its own.
Rather than feeling like you are wearing a knit, it naturally blends into the clothes you wear every day.
And my impression changed quite a bit between the first time I held this knit and the first time I actually wore it.
When you put it on, it feels surprisingly light.
It is also somewhat similar to the Wool Zip Blouson introduced in the previous blog post.
The impression of its weight changes between holding it in your hands and wearing it on your body.
This knit uses more than twice as much yarn as a typical knit.
Of course, judged by its actual weight alone, this is not a lightweight knit. Holding it in your hands makes it clear that a substantial amount of yarn has been used.
And yet, once you put your arms through the sleeves, the weight is hardly noticeable.
Perhaps because the weight is not concentrated on the shoulders or any one part of the body, but distributed across the garment as a whole, it does not feel as heavy as the numbers suggest once you put it on.
What you feel on your body is, rather, the warmth of wool. The softness of cashmere. And the dry touch of linen.
Precisely because it is a three-material blend, it offers a comfort that no single material could provide.
It is warm because it has substance. But it is not simply warm; the linen gives it a sense of separation from the skin.
The addition of cashmere's softness keeps it from feeling overly dry.
I feel that the balance of those three elements extends the period in which this knit can be worn.
The ribbing, too, is something you understand well after wearing it for a full day.
They do not grip tightly, but neither do they stretch out sloppily.
If you push the sleeves up slightly, they stay at roughly that position. Lower them, and they fall naturally.
The hem does not cling to the body, nor does it sit too far away.
I think details like these are difficult to understand from product photos alone.
But when you actually wear it for a long time, those things matter quite a lot.
There is no need to keep adjusting the sleeves or pulling down the hem.
You do not have to keep worrying about the fact that you are wearing clothes.
Perhaps this is what it means for something to feel good all day.
It is not a flashy knit.
At a glance, I do not think it is a garment doing anything particularly unusual.
With clothes like this, though, before you know it, you find yourself reaching for them more and more often.
When you think about what to wear in the morning, rather than consciously choosing it by thinking, “I’ll wear this today,” you simply find yourself wearing it again.
I feel that clothes like that are the ones you can ultimately live with for a long time.
And at this time of year, there is considerable freedom in how you wear it.
You can wear it on its own. Once the temperature drops a little further, I think you could also wear a shirt underneath.
You could let a little of a scarf show at the neckline.
Just because it is a knit does not mean you need to suddenly dress for winter.
Denim is fine, as are chinos. Wool trousers work as well.
It is enough to wear it with the trousers you usually wear.
Rather, precisely because the three materials create a slightly ambiguous character, how it looks changes depending on what you pair it with.
With denim, a hint of linen's dry texture comes through. With wool trousers, the cashmere's soft character becomes easier to see.
Wearing a shirt underneath also makes the difference from the knit's texture more apparent.
Because the materials each have such varied character, how it looks changes depending on who wears it and what it is paired with.
That is another interesting aspect of this knit.
As I wrote at the beginning, when I hear “a wool knit,” I imagine winter, which is still a little way off.
But when I hear “a wool, cashmere, and linen knit”, I imagine not only winter, but rather the season ahead, beginning now.
Short sleeves were fine until yesterday, but today there is a slight chill in the air.
When you leave home in the morning, the wind is colder than you expected.
Wearing the same clothes as in summer no longer feels quite right.
In this way, there are moments when your body notices the change of season before the temperature numbers do.
I hope you will start wearing this knit from that moment.
You wear it because winter has arrived. You wear it because a certain month has begun.
Rather than defining the season that way, wear it because today feels a little cool. Because you want to put on one more layer over it.
I hope you will reach for it for reasons like those.
Wool means winter. Linen means summer.
Of course, each material has its season in which it excels.
But by blending the three, the boundaries can be made a little more ambiguous.
Choose clothes based not on the names of the seasons, but on today's temperature and how you feel.
I would be happy if you could wear it as that kind of piece for many years to come.
cliché Tomioka
