There was this thing on the Prada Fall 2016 runway last spring that I quickly clicked right past, aghast at the … well, at the whole thing, let’s be honest. I didn’t linger nearly long enough to notice or wonder about the knitted fabric that made up the body of that cardigan. Then last week a reader sent me an email containing the image at the top of this post — from Prada’s current ad campaign — asking if I could shed any light on it. A few days later, a friend texted the Eddie Redmayne becardiganned version below it. Both images had the opposite effect on me: I could not take my eyes off them. The fabric is fascinating, but the vest! It’s like some kind of hippie patchwork version of my fitted Cowichan-ish vest, one of my all-time favorite garments. The colors in the Prada vest are too Bob Newhart Show for me (although I like it against the pink!), but the palette of Eddie’s cardigan is mesmerizing — like The Plucky Knitter was involved.
But what IS IT, you’re wondering? So was I! For a diagnosis, I turned to my friend Kate, who sees it as a variation on the short-row scallops you see in something like Olga’s Aranami shawl, with intarsia for the color changes, and a single-row stripe worked as a purl stitch running along the upper row of each scalloped ridgeline. No big deal!
I’ve never knitted anything in the scallops category and never done intarsia, but I’m sufficiently fascinated with that vest that I might have to give something like it a try someday. (Thank you, Ece!)
PREVIOUSLY in Fall 2016: Best of the Best: Dries’ epic sweater