Natty Knits: A Big Comeback
Melrose Avenue antique dealer Joel Chen is so devoted to sweaters, he would sacrifice a meal for one.
Last year, fashionably dressed in a shirt, trousers and a Gianni Versace sweater that “certainly doesn’t look cheap,” he was refused service in a chic New York restaurant. “I had been warned in advance,” he admits. “But I refuse to wear a jacket and tie. That’s how much I love sweaters.”
He loves them enough to have paid more than $900 for one, and at last count, his private collection numbered 45. Before he left this week on a European business trip, Chen predicted he would bring home more.
“You buy one and you get attached to it,” he says, describing how his knit addiction began 15 years ago. “It’s not even a hobby, it’s a sickness. You go looking for them, trying to find different patterns, new varieties. And getting compliments doesn’t help any.”
Recent years have been a bonanza for sweater guys like Chen. Television talk-show hosts and sitcom stars, most notably Bill Cosby, have fueled consumer interest in sweaters and have inspired designers to turn out novelties and rework the classics.
For fall, store counters are rife with innovative colors, textures and allover patterns. There are cottons that look like wool and wools light as cotton. There are updated oldies (the cardigan has returned) and new concepts, including Alexander Julian’s cashmere-touch merino and Ralph Lauren’s sportscoat replacement--a single or double-breasted sweater jacket in check, plaid or solid cashmere.
Los Angeles, despite its warm climate, is a city of sweater-loving men. According to Gerald Barnes, vice president and divisional merchandise manager for Neiman Marcus, Beverly Hills leads the chain’s 22 stores in sweater sales.
The casual and consumptive local life style accounts in part for the statistic, but there’s also the fashion-forward nature of L.A. men. Added to that is the universal appeal of knits.
“A sweater is a way for a man to express his personal style,” Barnes explains. “A woven shirt is a woven shirt. But a sweater offers a tremendous latitude. It can have texture, be embroidered, be thin or thick. Manufacturers can do almost anything with it, and men can get something they really like because the range is so wide.”
Fall sweaters are lighter than ever, which means, Barnes says, “Men aren’t really wearing them for warmth.”
They’re wearing them for show. Not always an easy task, according to writer/producer Marc Sotkin: “In a cold climate, a sweater is much more functional. Here, I think people seem to notice when a man is wearing a sweater. I’m always aware of it. I like texture, something interesting without being real obvious. I don’t like bold prints and patterns, because in L.A. just wearing a sweater is a fairly bold statement.” Bold is a word often used to describe the sweaters worn by Bill Cosby on his NBC-TV sitcom. “They’re not always bold,” says Sarah Lemire, the show’s costume designer. “Sometimes there are muted colors. But he’s a humourous man who can carry off colorful, humorous things. Some of them would overpower anyone else.”
Of all the costume elements, sweaters bring Lemire “the most feedback. I get letters from all over the world. A lot of people are knitters who want patterns. Other people want to know where to buy. And when we had a sweater with feet all over it, I got so many letters from podiatrists.”
Lemire works on a budget of $3,000 per episode. “Low,” she insists. Some sweaters are purchased or are on loan; others are made especially for the show “for $300 or less and never more than $500.”
Motif sweaters, such as a “funny green one covered with hair combs in different colors,” get the most viewer response. In the five seasons the show has been on the air, Lemire has used “tons” of knits.
When they started out, Lemire says Cosby instructed her “to do clothing that people would notice and talk about.” The sweaters have been noticed. Lemire says she’s heard from knitwear manufacturers that “we’ve made their business great.”
Stanley Steinberg, co-owner of Boston-based Marienbad, says when Cosby “wore a few of our sweaters last year on the show, a lot of stores got turned onto us.”
About 30% of Marienbad’s business is done in Los Angeles (in stores such as I. Magnin, Saks and Fred Segal), where the very graphic, predominantly cotton knits are in demand despite a price range of $300-$350.
Steinberg thinks the sweaters go down well locally because “we try not to have anything too serious or too formal. We like the idea of having a good time. And I think in California, people are looking to have a good time.”
Like many sweater designers, Steinberg and partner Patrick Groenendaal are finding the late ‘80s good for business because of “the general relaxation of the dress code and the fact that men love to be comfortable.” And like other designers, they have breathed new life into cardigans.
“The stores are asking for them,” Steinberg says. “They tend to have a negative connotation--something Perry Como or your grandfather would wear. But ours are different. They’re lively.”
But will Ronald Litz buy one? The West L.A. lawyer currently owns 113 sweaters, of which only five have buttons down the front.
“I had a sixth,” he says with a twinge of sadness. “It was a magnificent Alexander Julian. But my daughter decided to wash it for me. I then gave it to my 5-year-old nephew, and it was even too small for him.”
That disaster aside, Litz has only fond memories of knits, preferably crew necks. He wears them as many places as he can, including cocktail parties, Laker games (“where people dress to the hilt”) and into the courtroom with a tie, shirt and jacket.
Last weekend he was scheduled to go hunting for more knits--for reasons that might sound familiar to other men. “Sweaters,” Litz muses, “are like a work of art. They’re aesthetically pleasing. They can make me happy just by looking down. No other article of clothing works like that.”
