A great vintage sweater is one of the best values in fashion: dense natural fibres, construction that predates fast production, and a patina no new garment can copy. But not every second-hand knit is a keeper. Here's what we check on every piece before it reaches our catalogue.
1. Fibre first
Read the label — or better, learn to read the fabric. Pure wool, alpaca and cashmere age gracefully and can be refreshed with a gentle wash. Beware of heavy pilling on acrylic blends: pills on natural fibres can often be removed and won't return quickly; pills on synthetics signal a fibre that's breaking down.
2. Check the stress points
Look closely at the cuffs, collar and underarms. A little surface wear is fine and honest; holes in high-friction zones are harder to repair than they look. Elbows are the exception — they're easy for any knitter to reweave.
3. Feel the weight
Lift the sweater. Vintage knits — especially Norwegian and Austrian Fair Isles — are often astonishingly dense. Heft is a great proxy for quality: heavier usually means more wool, better spinning and longer life.
4. Smell test
Mustiness usually washes out with a wool-safe soak and flat drying. Smoke and perfume, however, can linger in wool fibres for a long time — we pass on pieces that carry them.
5. Buy the fit you can verify
Ignore the label size. Vintage sizing varies wildly between brands and decades, so always compare the flat-lay measurements in the listing against a garment you already own. Our Size Guide walks you through it.
Every knit in our Knitwear & Sweaters collection has been through this checklist — one piece at a time.
Shop vintage knitwear
Every knit in our catalogue is a one-off, handpicked in Europe and photographed as found. A few pieces our regulars keep coming back for:
- Polo Ralph Lauren wool & cashmere cable knit — the kind of dense, soft cable that new fast-fashion knits simply don't make.
- Gudrun Sjödén belted cable cardigan — Scandinavian design in excellent pre-owned condition.
- Transit Par-Such merino sweater — Italian minimalism, heavyweight 100% wool.
Browse the full Knitwear & Sweaters collection — new pieces added weekly, each one unique. Not sure about fit? Check our vintage size guide before you order.