Oh, I used to love a cardigan.  A nice, comfy cardie.  Warm enough to wear when it was cold; cool enough to wear when it was warm.  The cardigan was the garment for all seasons.  Until it became the garment for none.

On TV, the cardigan’s heyday was the 1970s.  Steve McQueen had given the cardigan a credibility boost in the 1968 film Bullitt, and where Steve led, Paul Michael Glaser followed, in the role of Dave Starsky in the long running American cop show Starsky and Hutch.

Such was cardie-cool, but the cardigan was to prove itself a far more versatile fashion item, finding itself equally at home playing cardie-cosy.  This was exemplified by Irish singer Val Doonican on The Val Doonican Show and by Fred Rogers in Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood.

I recall happy days––which reminds me, Richie Cunningham from Happy Days was another regular cardigan wearer––sitting on the sofa watching all these shows on TV wearing my own cardigan, alternately feeling either cool or cosy.  Until… The cardigan was dealt an Eighties’ unravelling.

Starsky and Hutch was replaced by Miami Vice: Starsky’s chunky-knit cardigan suddenly had no place amidst the pastel suits and Florida palms.  Similarly, Val Doonican’s homely knitwear was superseded by Terry Wogan’s smart jacket-and-slacks combo.

And my own cardigan?  Somewhere during that period, it disappeared too.  I can’t put a precise date on the occurrence, but one day it was discarded never to be replaced.  Discarded, but never entirely forgotten.  It is with a sense of affection that I look back upon my cardigan-years; they were more innocent times back then; happy times.

If there is any fashion item that is ready for a revival, I feel that it is the cardigan.  And I believe that I am not alone.  Already, I sense an up-swelling in popular interest.  Taylor Swift named a 2020 track Cardigan.  Katie Holmes has recently given the garment an off-the-shoulder chic.  Cardi B?  She may owe her name more to a well-known white rum than any kind of open-fronted knitted sweater, but the Great Cardigan Revival is prepared to take its supporters wherever it can find them.

© Beery Sue

Beery Sue knows how to flaunt it in any style.