For a look that hits you need a bright, bold knit
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When the French fashion journalist-turned-designer Alexandra Golovanoff was launching her eponymous knitwear label a decade ago, she noticed that colour was often an afterthought in the industry. “Whenever I’d interview designers, or spend time in studios, the question of colour was very quickly dismissed,” she recalls. “They would go, ‘We want a blue, we want a green and a red’, and that was usually it.”
Golovanoff’s signature cashmere crewneck sweaters (£523) come in a palette of around 39 different colours. She luxuriates in the process of selecting the shades, which range from powder blush and magenta to khaki green and azure blue. “I’ve always believed that the colour you wear below your face works just like make-up,” she says. “It has the power to make you look more beautiful.”
Golovanoff was ahead of the curve. This season a rainbow of colourful knitwear has emerged. Japanese label Auralee has introduced postbox-red sweatshirts and lime-green jumpers, designed to peek out from under earthy-brown jackets. Jil Sander offers pale-pink knits and cropped cobalt-blue crewnecks. And for their debut Loewe collection, designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez proposed turtlenecks in Ellsworth Kelly-inspired yellows and fiery reds.
After what feels like an interminable winter, it’s no surprise people are craving a sartorial hit of dopamine. “When it’s still a bit too cold for actual spring dressing, knitwear is a great way to add colour,” says Buffy Reid, founder of Scottish and Irish-made knitwear label &Daughter. Her midweight lambswool knits (£355) in mint, pickle green and smalt blue are perfect for the transitional weather. “Something vivid like a cobalt blue refreshes winter style codes and brings joy,” she says.
Golovanoff recommends a sunny-yellow or a blush-pink knit for spring, which “are super-flattering when we’re still pale and have dark under-eye circles from winter”, she says. Meanwhile, at London-based Rise & Fall, sales of poppy-red knits, available as a lightweight silk/cotton cardigan (£120) or a midweight knitted cashmere jacket (£250), have in the past month increased by more than 200 per cent. “There’s been a lot of talk around timelessness meaning neutral, but colour can have just as much longevity,” says creative director Natalie Hasseck. “What’s interesting is the shift away from colour as an accent towards pieces that sit fully in one colour.”
Parisian store Rubirosa’s is another brand that celebrates a punchy hue. “I like to think of it as a candy shop for adults,” says founder Lauren Rubinski of her wood-panelled boutique. Her cashmere V-neck and polo sweaters (from €490) in butter yellow, grass green and violet sit among a spectrum of other pastels, and are designed to layer perfectly over cotton poplin shirts (€310) in the same tones. “What has been particularly rewarding is seeing how naturally customers style them,” she says. “Many people purchase the pieces as sets, mixing colours to create their own combinations and pairing shades that you would not necessarily expect: violet with deep red, different nuances of green or a pale-pink sweater layered over a red shirt.”
Dutch knitwear label Extreme Cashmere, whose genderless pieces are made to be worn in playful combinations, has this season launched cardigans and short-sleeved crewneck sweaters (from £333) in a vibrant palette of purplish pink, tangy green, burnt orange and muddy grey. Design director Jules ten Velde says he was inspired by the “warm streetlights and neons reflected through the windows of Paris on a summer night”.
J Crew’s thin ribbed merino-wool V-necks (£132), available in violet or red, layer just as well together as over a white T-shirt. “It is a look rooted in menswear and prep style, but it feels very current again,” says creative director Olympia Gayot, who likes to tie a contrasting chunky knit over the shoulders or around the neck for another pop of colour. Alex Mill’s lightweight cashmere sweaters (£335) in sherbet yellow and tangerine look great with a sliver of contrasting colour at the collar.
Or for colour-blocking made easy, look to Paris design studio August Barron’s signature trompe l’oeil Triple sweater, which appears to layer coral, grey and brown wool sweaters but is one piece (£616). Golovanoff similarly has a trompe l’oeil sweater that combines a khaki V-neck and a classic navy-and-white striped Breton top (£479). Says Golovanoff: “Three colours in an outfit are always better than two.”
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