The Christmas Jumper

Wearing: J.W. Anderson Tie Wrist Jumper – Farfetch

In a time where wearing the out-of-style, in irony will certainly lead to sartorial triumph, our desires have been rekindled for the likes of the tacky applique jeans of the 90s and the matronly pleated skirts of the 20s. So too, in recent years, the Christmas jumper, with their red nosed snow men and Santa caricatures, once only worn to humour your great aunt’s tedious handiwork, has experienced a similar camp revival. It is a phenomenon where something is so uncool that, after all attempts to take it seriously have dissipated, it is jubilantly plucked out of the charity shop discount bin as the new cool. Similarly, re-watching the scene where Bridget dismisses Darcy’s reindeer jumper offhand, you suddenly find yourself in need of one just like it, to wear with your favourite Vetements jeans.

As for my little Christmas present to myself this year, I nabbed from Farfetch, my own Christmas jumper of sorts. As we’re on the subject of irony, enter J.W. Anderson its applique jumper with seemingly randomly placed bows that immediately brought to mind the plethora of kitchy jumpers of my youth, and a khaki jumper with crudely attached cloud shaped pockets that sits in the weird place between camo and My Little Pony. Mine is one I’ve had my eye on for a while. In every other respect a rather ordinary knitted jumper, it’s that boxy fit and overlong sleeves with ties at the wrists that make this piece something far beyond.

And while there is no reindeer to be found here (the author suspects such an embellishment would improve, not only this jumper, but every jumper), first impressions are just as exciting, a feeling that is torn between hate and love. The former is a compulsion to dislike and dismiss for the piece’s jarringly non-conformism to mainstream and the counterintuitively unflattering design; the latter, a delightful tingling in the back of your mind that you have come to recognise as the welling of obsession.

So trusting that I have sold you on the Christmas jumper, how do you wear it to all of this year’s best Christmas parties? This is a piece to be treated as though you, the wearer, has not noticed its strangeness. Style it as though you would any other perfectly normal knit, layered over a cute mini skirt (some thigh high boots too), tucked into the waist of your high waist jeans, or cinched with whatever Insta-bait designer logo belt you’re batting for this year.