Show jumpers

Not sure if anyone's noticed, but it's a tad on the chilly side at the mo. Which gives me the perfect excuse to dig out my fantastic range of jumpers and perhaps even invest in some new ones. I'm especially keen on bright-coloured stripy numbers, and I'm also quite partial to Scottish and Scandinavian patterns, especially Fair Isle and Icelandic.

Back in the 80s, meanwhile, when knitting machines were the must-have accessory of mums of a certain age the length and breadth of the country, but particularly, seemingly, on the Wirral, I was presented one birthday with a red polo neck adorned with white snowflakes and reindeer. Went lovely with my scarlet legwarmers. I wonder what happened to it.


Anyway, I was just this morning flicking through some magazines that have been hanging about on the kitchen table, perusing possible purchases, and noticed that both the Guardian and Stylist had put pretty much the same rigout together using a variety of Gap knitwear (not this outfit, although this is Gap). That nice Jess Cartner-Morley lady looked happy in her layers and, in the accompanying copy, was pondering the word "jumper" being superceded by the label "knitwear": "Jumpers! Remember them? Even the word sounds old-fashioned ... Fashion doesn't do jumpers any more. It does knitwear ... "

We didn't do jumpers at ELLE, either: house style dictated the use of "sweater" instead, which is odd because sweater doesn't sound the least bit chic or glamorous. And it's a shame, this jumper-bashing: I quite like the word myself.