Weathered Sweaters
...AND HOW TO CARE FOR THEM. YOU'LL THANK YOURSELF LATER.
Pictured: VINTAGE WOOL SWEATER from THE GARMENT DISTRICT, VINTAGE CALVIN KLEIN DENIM from THE GARMENT DISTRICT, REUSABLE LINT BRUSH from BOSTON GENERAL STORE
Winter has decided to pull out all the stops this year with freezing temperatures and a generous layer of snow. As the pandemic continues on its current, unmitigated course here in the U.S., a daily walk has been one of the few joys I’ve built into my routine. While bundling up in the warmest clothes I own should be a given, I’ve reached for every piece in my closet except this one vintage wool sweater I bought back either at the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020. I’d worn it a few times here and there when it was especially cold but no matter how I wore it, it never failed to look like I had just fished it out from the depths of my grandfather’s attic.
The gambit of vintage shopping is that pieces are rarely in perfect condition. It’s the nature of sourcing your wardrobe secondhand and I’ve learned that many imperfections we come across can be easily mended: trousers can be tailored, buttons can be replaced, small holes can be darned, and pilled sweaters can be shaved. However, I’m notoriously prone to putting off these little fixes that can make the most unused piece in my closet the newest favorite.
Never in my life have I encountered a piece of knitwear quite as heavy as this one. Consequently, it sagged in all the wrong places. It was covered in pills from a well-loved past that made the sweater look like it was in worse condition than it actually was. Despite this laundry list of easily fixed issues, I continued to ignore it as the knit eventually made its way to the bottom of my sweater stack. Every time I scanned my closet in desperate search of something warm, I was reminded that I could be donning the warmest sweater I had but instead I kept choosing to ignore it’s pilled, saggy existence.
After a year of putting it off, I couldn’t take it anymore. It was time to do something about this sweater. I used my reusable lint roller to methodically remove all of the stray fibers and pills that haunted my knit for much too long. I find that, in addition the usable garment that I now get to enjoy, the process of caring for my clothing is a meditative one. The repetitive movements were soothing. It’s not often I have the chance to connect with my wardrobe in that way but I cherished the experience.
The best fix I’ve found for a saggy sweater is to shrink it ever so slightly. I threw the knit through a warm wash cycle to prime the fibers for shrinking. You don’t want to wash the sweater with water that’s hot because you’ll over-shrink the garment — always save the actual shrinking for the dryer. Once the sweater was primed, I threw it in the dryer for intervals of 5 minutes until it had shrunk to it’s pre-sag state. I ran it through one last time to shrink it a bit more. Since it’s so heavy, I wanted to have to fit a little bit closer to my body than it did when I bought it. My hope is that this will prevent it from sagging so much moving forward. Now, the fit is ab-so-lute-ly perfect.
I know that I will never stop being a vintage lover. It’s a sensibility that my grandmother gave to me and one I plan to carry throughout my whole life. That means I’ll run into more scenarios like this and, if you’re a vintage fiend like me, you probably will too. My parting advice is to not be like me and put off garment care for a year. Mend those shirts. Tailor your trousers. Depill your sweaters. You’ll thank yourself later.