I have been searching for WEEKS for a good Fairisle sweater with very little success. I think perhaps I have “gone” a bit early – Fairisle maybe doesn’t hit the shops until mid-October or early November as people start to think about Christmas.
Still, I’ve been looking because I’ve got a terrible fear of all the marvellous cosy Fairisle sweaters selling out and I want one.
But so far the two likely sweaters I’ve found and bought and had delivered have been rotten. One from Boden, which was bulky and itchy and !!!! so fucking static !!!!!
and another I found on ShopBop, which arrived today, which is also itchy and a bit stinky like of wet wool/dogs. They both have sleeves that seem to balloon out from the shoulder and flap around one’s elbows and forearms. So disappointing.
This absolutely did not look like this on me when I tried it on
I sent the Boden sweater back and the above sweater is going back, too. Because that’s the thing about internet shopping, you have to be absolutely 100% okay with the slight hassle of sending things back. Luckily I live near a Mailboxes Etc, which is always empty and queue-less, unlike any PostOffice, which has queues like something out of the Soviet Union circa 1985.
You have to be ruthless with internet purchases. Absolutely ruthless. I reckon a lot of online places make a huge margin off their customers not being arsed to send things back. You have to try the thing on assuming it’s going to be shit and you have to send it back – this requires a pretty huge doublethink, as the item in question, in the time between you hitting “Place Order” drunkenly and it arriving at your door, will have verily become the item that is going to change your life.
Then it arrives and smells of wet dog and you’re so disappointed you could cry and you think… maybe if I put it in a drawer and try it on again later it won’t be so stinky and itchy. Wrong my friend. Wrong. Put it back in its bag and send it the hell back to wherever it came from.
You have to think “I knew it. I knew it was going to be shit” and take great pleasure in sending it back because the shop is probably counting on you not doing so.
Anyway I’ve completely given up on the hunt for a Fair Isle sweater now. I found this on on Gundrun (who made Sarah Lund’s sweaters) but it’s insanely expensive and I just know it’s going to be some itchy unflattering bastard.
Anyway I’m completely fed up now. I’ll just wait until there are 4,000 snowflake sweaters in Gap and have to make do with one of those.
You’re going to think I’m stalking you as this is the 3rd comment I’ve left today! Sorry – I promise I’m not. But I just wanted to share a company I found last winter after like you searching unsuccessfully for a beautiful fairisle sweater for a couple of years. The company is called CMP and I bought my sweater from a stall at the Spirit of Christmas fair at Olympia (held in November every year) but I notice from their website that they are stocked by Snow and Rock in London. (Don’t know if I’m allowed to post a link but here is one to a pretty sweater that I’ve got my eye on for this year http://www.cmp.campagnolo.it/eng/collezione-scheda/woman-knitted-pullover_7H56510.php). I absolutely love the one I bought last year and when I realised I’d dropped my dinner on it but had cut out the washing instructions label I emailed their customer services department (in Italy – I wrote in English!) via their website and they replied to tell me how to wash it only a couple of days later. I was very impressed.
No Sue don’t stop commenting! I love you! Marry me! This is great info thank you very much. I am going to perv at this jumper right now xxxx
You could always learn to knit…. 🙂
I KNOW how to knit, just don’t want to
Absolutely no excuse! 🙂
What do Boden put in their wool – wire? I’m quietly obsessed with this women’s jumpers, bit of an cooler take on the fairisle.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/172712119/port-of-amsterdam-sweater
Also I have MOTHS. A terrible curse, so all wool has to live in the freezer, or ideally not be made of wool. They are the bane of my life. Or my life in winter at any rate.
oh I know I know. we have moths too FUCKING FUCKERS. we’ve had the whole house sprayed – didn’t work. try Pheremone Moth traps from Amazon. Not a total cure-all but you can see the little c*nts stuck to the sticky strip. sorry I’m not usually an animal killer but moths are so evil and gross and pointless
Although, if you don’t have moths, you really can’t beat Brora, they have some stunning fairisle type jumpers. £300 a bit too much for moth food though.
http://www.brora.co.uk/Product/Category.aspx?WebShopCodeStr=A5&WebSegmentCodeStr=S2&WebCategoryCodeStr=JC
They drive me into the red mist, I’ve actually smashed two bedroom lights trying to thwack them. Spraying was my next move, then ripping up the carpets. I’m now really coveting that jumper from Brora now though….
Everything you write makes me laugh aloud, and immediately want to go and read it to somebody else to make them laugh too… If that isn’t great I don’t know what is.
If you can bear it TKMaxx had some good ones – a whole rack dedicated to Fairisle…Kew, Clements Ribeiro and some other decent brands.
From one online shopping addict to another – have you tried http://www.lastcall.com? Its everything that didn’t sell on Neiman Marcus. You’ll sometimes have to look through pages of crap to find something nice but who doesn’t want a pure cashmere sweater for less than $150? And they have kids clothes!
You could try lands end… They have a couple of pretty looking ones on their website:
http://www.landsend.co.uk/mSearch?cgid=5728&pdtPerRow=2&sz=all&endless=true&pageSize=15
What about the White Company?
http://www.thewhitecompany.com/clothing/knitwear/jumpers/fairisle-lurex-jumper–dark-charcoal-marl/
very nice!!! hadn’t seen that one xx