Grace Ling Angular Ribbed Knit Cardigan

Viscose is a regenerated cellulosic, which is to say it begins as wood pulp and is extruded as a filament, and in a knit it behaves like nothing else. It is heavier than cotton at the same gauge, it has almost no elasticity of its own, and it falls. A rib is the structure that makes that usable: the alternating columns give the knit a mechanical stretch the fiber does not have, so the cardigan has recovery at the cuff and at the hem without anything elastic having to be spun into it. What the house has done with that is cut the collar wide and finish the cuffs and the hem on an angle, so every edge of the garment is a deliberate line rather than a place where it stops. On a knit that is otherwise plain, the edges are the design.

Most of the knitwear we are offered is interesting at the surface. This one is interesting at the edges, which is harder to do and considerably easier to wear.

Grace Ling is known for sculpture in metal, and a ribbed cardigan is the quiet end of the same argument: shape arrived at through cut rather than through anything applied.

One hundred percent viscose. Made in the USA. Ribbed knit, with a wide collar and with the cuffs and the hem cut on an angle. Black. We do not hold a gauge or a measurement for this cardigan, and we do not hold an account of whether it fastens.

A rib holds and releases, so it sits closer than a plain knit of the same nominal size and it moves with the body rather than over it. Viscose is heavy for its thickness and it hangs, so expect the length to sit lower than a cotton or a wool cardigan of the same measurement would. It goes over a cami or over nothing.

Over a cami, or with jeans, which is what makes it a garment rather than an occasion. Over the Tailored Wide Leg Logo Tag Trousers for the version where both pieces are black and only the edges are doing anything.

Viscose is the fiber that loses most of its strength when it is wet, so the most useful thing to know about this cardigan is not to wring it, not to hang it wet, and not to let it carry its own weight while it is damp. Wash it cool by hand or have it cleaned, press the water out flat rather than twisting, and dry it flat. Our care guidance covers the rest.

The Square Sweater is the grey knit built on right angles, and the Tailored Wide Leg Logo Tag Trousers is the black wool this is cut to sit over. Everything we carry from Grace Ling is listed together.