Sweater Weather

We’re about to hit ‘sweater weather’. I don’t know why I find that phrase teeth-itchingly awful. Maybe it’s because you have to say it with an American accent in order for it to even slightly rhyme. Swedder wedder.

Swedder wedder kicks off twice a year, once in Spring when you stop wearing coats, and again in the Autumn just before you start wearing them again. It’s signalled by a rise in temperatures or a drop, it’s that scientific.

When I was at Central St Martins learning how to write about fashion, we were earnestly instructed never to write about ‘the specifics of pleats’, or ‘the weather’. Pleats, because too much technical detail is frankly dull. The weather because it’s too easy. Every good fashion feature needs a WHY NOW, and seasonal changes simply won’t wash. We were told.

My view is this. In the UK it is never NOT swedder wedder. It’s either freezing and wet, milder and wet, warm and dry (for a week) then mild and wet again, on repeat. And even in the warm and dry week, it’s still chilly in the evenings. C’mon, Barbados in a heat wave can require a cover-up at night, on the beach, with the moonlight bouncing off the waves.

So, buy a jumper if you need one, any time, preferably from Baker Miller Pink Cashmere, but there are other brands, they’re just not as lovely.
And my WHY NOW is… BECAUSE WE LIVE IN BRITAIN.