Knotted, over the shoulder: the return of the pullover

The knotted jumper over the shoulders is an item of clothing strongly connoted as bourgeois. Those who love this style always run the risk of being strangled by a Front de Gauche supporter, with a sharp gesture, by pulling both sleeves simultaneously'. It was 2012 and Le Monde, after recalling its 1960s wasp origins and European revival in the 1980s, joked about the reaction provoked in the most radical circles by the golf worn on the shoulders. The bourgeois matrix of this combination (and attitude) made it the object of real social rejection: the new generations found it unbearable. Which is understandable, after so much cinema and yacht club stereotypes.

Maglione V neck in cashmere, giacca doppiopetto e pantaloni in gabardine mélange di lana e cotone, tote bag in pelle intrecciata, slipper in intrecciato foulard. Tutto BOTTEGA VENETA.

But 13 years later - now worth 100 - the gesture finds its own redevelopment, precisely because it is so démodé as to be almost subversive, but in terms of style this time. No longer mature men and sailboats, but young people with unprecedented styling - the plastron evening shirt and the bright pink cable jumper - suitable for people who know how to break even the most deep-rooted conventions.

Compared to the Sixties, when the jumper was a fixed pair with the shirt in a sporty style, here it is attitudes and habits that have changed. Meanwhile, the jumper can be worn over a jacket, but not just any jacket. At Bottega Veneta, the oversize cut, in the shoulders and proportions, recalls a sweater with a robust yarn, but with synaesthetic softness (you only have to see it to feel it). The geometric lines break into the voluptuousness of cashmere, creating a visual counterpart to the empathic intelligence so much in demand today as a curricular skill. Is the workmanship structured? Then the jacket will be round, blouson-like, with welt pockets and button plackets. Canali's broken suit in Impeccable wool, with jacket with shirt collar and trousers with drawstring, is bordered by a Brianza green crew-neck in micro-structured jacquard cotton: a fusion of precision and fluidity.

Maglia in cashmerea trecce, camicia con plastron e papillon, sciarpa in seta, pantaloni in cotone. Tutto DIOR.

If the pullover does not replace the jacket, but accompanies it, surpasses it and embraces it, it plays almost more the role of an accessory, with the added bonus of coming in handy on the plane or in meetings with the thermostat fixed at 19 degrees, almost as if it were a shawl laid over the jacket and shirt with a gesture so nonchalant (but repeated and customary) as to be perfect. And it doesn't matter if it's in linen jersey with the double-breasted jacket, as with the Ralph Lauren Purple Label suit, or in cotton on the Brunello Cucinelli suit: the sweater is white, essential, omnipresent. Ralph Lauren and men's cable-knit jumpers are a topos, and their preppy lineage is well known: it speaks of the Ivy League, elitist universities and sports, and a consolidated imagination.

Maglia a V in seta a trecce, FENDI.

The world of knitwear is undergoing a real revolution that is moving between two poles: that of novel possibilities and that of nostalgia. Technology, 3D processing and applied university studies have enabled designers to make it a bench of creative experimentation. Knitwear is no longer just comfortable and basic, but capable of expressing avant-garde pieces, as demonstrated by English designer Maximilian Raynor, who uses the technical skills of knitwear expert Isabella Egan to translate his own creative impulses into clothes of artisanal intelligence.