The $45 Knit That's Basically the Whole Outfit
Sweater weather is here and the good stuff is already marked down. One $45 knit, one sweatshirt worth the money, a necklace that does the heavy lifting, and one dress I'm just going to look at.
Something shifts the last week of August. It's still warm at 2pm and then the sun goes down and suddenly you want sleeves. This is the annoying in-between where nothing in your closet is right, so here are four things that are — starting with the cheapest, because that's the one you're actually going to buy.
Start with the knit
The Peculiar Puss Knit from Dangerfield is $45, down from $108, and it's the piece I'd grab first. A knit with a bit of personality does more work than a plain one — it means you can wear the boring jeans you already own and still look like you tried.
Wear it with wide-leg denim and flat boots. Or, if you want to be smug about it, over a slip skirt in satin — that's genuinely everywhere right now, and the soft-knit-on-shiny-skirt thing looks far more expensive than it is. Plaid skirts are having the same moment if you'd rather do pattern.
The sweatshirt worth actual money
Most sweatshirts are the same sweatshirt. This one isn't — the Ooey Gooey Mockneck Sweatshirt in Charcoal Heather from POPFLEX is $67.20, down from $84, and the mockneck is the entire point. It gives you a neckline, which a crewneck does not, so it doesn't read as pyjamas the second you leave the house.
Charcoal is the right call over black here. It sits better next to brown, and brown is the colour of the season — chocolate and espresso suede is turning up on every jacket, boot and bag for fall. Charcoal, brown boots, done.
One necklace, worn every day
The CZ Multi Shape Wired Tennis Necklace from Adina Eden is $125, down from $250. Fine — it's not an impulse buy. But this is the category where one good piece beats five cheap ones, because a tennis necklace over a plain knit is the entire difference between "I got dressed" and "I have a look."
It sits high enough to show above a crewneck, which is exactly what you want in sweater season. Buy it once, wear it with everything, stop thinking about jewellery for a year.
And one I'm just going to admire
The Cait Maxi Dress from AJE is $455, down from $659. It's beautiful. It is also more than most of us are spending on a dress that isn't for a wedding, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. If you have an actual event and you'll wear it three times, it's a good buy. If you're buying it for a hypothetical, it's a pass.
One wildcard if you're bored of jeans: the Poplin Beach Pant from Noah, $118 from $228. Cut loose, easy, tuck the knit into it and you've solved the whole warm-afternoon-cold-evening problem in one go.
If you buy one thing: the knit. It's $45 and it makes everything else you own look better.
