Nigel Cabourn 50’s Cardigan

A cotton cardigan and a wool one are different tools and it is worth being clear about why. Wool traps air, which is how it warms and why it stops being useful above a certain temperature. Cotton does not trap air in the same way, so a cotton knit gives you a layer without giving you much heat, and the result is something you can wear in September and again in May rather than for the eight weeks in between. The trade is recovery. Cotton has less spring in it than wool, so a cotton knit relies on the knit structure rather than the fiber to come back to shape, and it wants to be folded rather than hung. This one is charcoal, which is the color that makes a cardigan read as tailoring rather than as loungewear, and it is made in Japan.

Why we selected it

The cardigan is the layer most people reach for and the one most often bought in the wrong fiber. A wool one is unwearable for two thirds of the year in this climate. This one is not.

Cabourn’s knitwear is the quiet part of the house, drawn from the same mid-century sources as the outerwear and asked to do a good deal less.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, knitted. Made in Japan. Color: Charcoal. We do not hold a description of the fastening, the pockets, or the rib on this cardigan, and we have not invented any of them.

Fit notes

Sizing runs 52, 54, and 56 on the house’s jacket scale rather than a chest measurement. A cotton knit gives across a day and comes back with washing rather than with rest, so choose for the shoulder and let the body follow.

Styling

Under the Fireman Jacket or the French Work Jacket, where a knit against a hemp canvas is a texture difference rather than an argument. Over the British Officer’s Shirt. With the Farmer Pant.

Care

Wash gently and cool, then dry flat rather than on a hanger, which matters more on a knit than on a woven because there is nothing in the fiber to pull a stretched shoulder back. Fold it to store it. Our care guidance covers cotton in more detail.

Related pieces

The French Work Jacket is hemp and cotton cut as outerwear, and the Cobbler Jacket is wool with hemp and cotton in the blend. Everything we carry from Nigel Cabourn is listed together.