A Letter From Vivian: The Plaid Cardigans
A letter from the founder
The outfit was right until you put the cardigan on.
On the six things I looked for before these came into the shop, how they compare to the cardigan already in your closet, and why every one of them is $59.95 for our twentieth year.
It is a little past eleven and you are meeting friends at half past twelve. You put on the sleeveless top you like and the pants that actually fit, and you look in the mirror and the whole thing works. You are pleased with it. You look like yourself.
Then you remember the restaurant. The vent is right over the fourth table and the air comes down on the back of your neck the moment you sit, and by the time the entrees arrive you have your arms crossed and you are not really listening. So you go back to the closet for the cardigan — the practical one, the one that lives there for exactly this — and you put it on over the top.
And the outfit is gone.
I am Vivian, and I opened this boutique twenty years ago with one idea: that a woman should not have to choose between comfortable and beautiful. That lunch is the moment the idea falls down.
And nothing is wrong with you. The cardigan most of us end up owning was never made to be seen. It was made to be available. No collar, no buttons, no shape of its own — so it takes the shape of whatever is underneath it and adds an inch of drape all the way round.
I never accepted that a woman had to choose between being comfortable at that table and liking what she has on at it. There were six things I looked for.
A collar, which is the whole difference
It costs the maker almost nothing and it changes everything. A collar puts a defined line across your shoulders and gives the eye somewhere to begin, so the thing reads as a garment rather than as a covering. The collarless cardigan starts at your neck with nothing and simply falls, which is why it flattens a good top instead of framing it. Every one of these has a knit collar.
“Finally, a cardigan that doesn’t make my whole outfit look shapeless. Looks really nice with a plain tee and jeans.”
Susan R., CharlestonA button front, so you are deciding rather than draping
An open cardigan gives you no choices. It hangs the way it hangs. Buttons give you three: fastened for a clean line straight down the middle, half done for something easier, or open — and open with a placket is not the same as open with a shawl edge, because the two front bands hang as two straight columns rather than falling loose. It is a small mechanical thing and it is the difference between wearing a cardigan and carrying one around on your shoulders.
“Bought it for going out. Somehow I’m wearing it around the house too... definitely getting my use out of it.”
Debbie S., SavannahRibbing deep enough to hold at the cuffs and the hem
This is the part nobody photographs and everybody feels. There is deep rib at both cuffs and along the bottom, and that is what stops a knit spreading out over the hips and swallowing the sleeves of the top underneath. It is also the reason going up a size for a bit more room through the arms does not have to cost you the shape — in a cardigan with no ribbing, a larger size is simply a larger amount of fabric with nothing to hold it anywhere.
“I’m picky about sleeves and these don’t feel tight over my tops. Comfortable to sit in, drive in, just go about my day.”
Janet W., LexingtonPlaid, because it does something a plain knit cannot
A solid cardigan has to earn its place on shape alone, and most of them lose. A plaid arrives with pattern and three or four colors already in it, so it looks considered the moment it goes on. More usefully, it reaches into the closet you already have — it picks up the navy, the khaki, the cream, the denim — and pulls them into the outfit instead of sitting on top of them like a separate decision. That is why these get worn with a plain tee and the plain tee starts to look intentional.
“Love the colors! Most of my closet is pretty basic, so this adds a little something without much effort.”
Carol B., SarasotaA layer for two climates forty feet apart
Most of what I hear about this time of year comes from customers writing to me from Florida while I am sitting up here in Newport, and the thing they describe is not one temperature but two, about forty feet apart. Outside it is still September in Naples and everybody knows it. Inside — the restaurant, the grocery store, the waiting room, your daughter’s car — it is another proposition altogether. What that calls for is something you can carry over your arm without thinking about it, put on for forty minutes and take off again. Not a warm cardigan. An available one that still looks like something.
“I keep this by the front door now. It’s the layer I grab for lunch out, especially when the restaurant has the AC blasting.”
Linda M., NaplesEighteen patterns, and every size from S to 3XL
They run from very quiet to not quiet at all. The gray-and-rust and the olive are for a woman whose closet is mostly navy and khaki and who wants a little fall in the picture without changing anything else she owns. The orange and the blue check are for someone who already knows she likes color and is not looking for permission. And if you have spent a few years buying beige because it was safe — beige is not wrong, but a plaid gives you the same easy pairing with rather more to look at, and it tends to be the one people mention. S, M, L, XL, 2XL and 3XL, every pattern the same price.
“I like a little coverage over sleeveless tops, but not a big heavy layer. This works nicely for me.”
Patricia H., Fort MyersThese, against the cardigan already in your closet
| The usual cardigan | These | |
|---|---|---|
| Collar | None — it starts at your neck and falls | A knit collar, a defined line |
| Front | Open, and it drapes however it likes | Buttons — fastened, half, or open |
| Cuffs & hem | Loose, so they spread | Deep rib that holds its place |
| Pattern | A solid, earning it on shape alone | Plaid, with the color already in it |
| Sizes | Go up one and it simply grows | S to 3XL, ribbed at both ends |
I refuse to sell a woman the layer that undoes the outfit she was pleased with an hour earlier. That is the whole reason these are in the shop.
Why we’re clearing them now
These came in between $157.95 and $195, depending on the pattern. The boutique turns twenty this year and my daughter Pearl works beside me now, which is not something I let myself expect when I opened in 2006. We wanted to mark it by handing something back to the women who have kept our doors open, so the whole rail is going out at $59.95.
And I would rather they went now, while you are still in the part of the year when the air conditioning is the problem, than sit in the stockroom until they have become a winter garment nobody in Florida needs. There is a limited run of each size in each pattern, and when they go they are gone.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,524+ reviews
$157.95–$195$59.95
20th Anniversary Sale — every cardigan, one price
- A knit collar and a button front on every one
- Deep ribbing at both cuffs and the hem
- Eighteen patterns, from very quiet to not quiet at all
- Sizes S, M, L, XL, 2XL and 3XL
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every pattern the same price · while sizes last
Have a look through them, and do not feel you have to hurry. You know your own closet far better than I do — you know which colors you actually reach for and which ones you bought once and left on the hanger.
All I would say is this. The next time you are dressed and pleased with it and you remember the restaurant, it would be nice if the thing you reached for did not undo the rest.
That is the whole idea.
— Vivian · Vivian & Pearl Newport
SEE THE PLAID CARDIGANS — $59.95 EACH →This is a personal letter from the founder of Vivian & Pearl Newport. Customer reviews are quoted as written. · US family brand since 2006 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.