Everything old is new again, but you’re better off with new
Retro styles are in — but hauling an old sweater out of the closet won’t do

By JJ Lee

The most recent vintage-tinged style trend has been termed “young fogey” or “retirement chic” and, along with bow ties and tweed jackets, sweaters form the backbone of the look.

Christian Chensvold is the editor-in-chief of an authoritative fashion blog, Ivy-Style.com. By phone from Los Angeles, he says the trend recalls “Protestant establishment, elite clothes, the WASP style bequeathed to America, with its frugality.”

Some people call it “trad,” others call it “preppy.” Regardless of what it’s called, he points to sweaters found online at JCrew.com and Ralph Lauren’s Rugby.com. Men, says Chensvold, should look for “updated varsity and letterman sweaters” with a “1930s to 1950s collegiate look with an emphasis on shawl collars.”

Chensvold says the style evokes a previous generation’s aversion to ostentation and, though he stresses it is a coincidence, he finds this trend nostalgia synchs up nicely with the economic downturn.

“We are definitely in a hangover state, and keeping your clothes and passing them on and not buying what you don’t need, is out there,” he says.

To make his point, he recounts this tale. “Yesterday, I took out a Fair Isle sweater [a heavily patterned classic sweater from Scotland] that I had in storage since last winter. I bought it a couple of years ago. I’ve discovered it has a couple of holes in it. I am very pleased. It’s finally, really mine.”

To go vintage is one thing. Wrapping up old sweaters in a box and giving them as gifts is another. It’s pretty dicey and takes a special shopper who can hit the thrift stores and find a perfect sample with just the right hand-me-down feel.

Most, and it’s recommended, will have to buy new to go old school.

Here are the essential rugged and retro-inspired sweater details to seek out around town and online:

- Elbow patches of brown cotton twill on Brown Sound’s cardigans suggest a decade of wear and tear has created a hole on your sleeve. For $165, you can pretend you and your sweater have been around the block more than once.