why crazy weather calls for a twin set

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It’s easy to see the appeal of swaddling yourself in heavy-gauge cashmere, pumpkin spice latte in hand, on an icy, blue-skied morning with crunchy leaves underfoot. But have you tried to take public transport lately, when daily temperatures might fluctuate between 4°C and 16°C mid-afternoon, leaving everyone in a lather of regret? And that’s before you enter the Arctic winds of an air-conditioned office where the chill cuts through your shirt. Or sit on a plane where temperatures are either Baltic or subtropical.

For urban professionals seeking to negotiate these hostile microclimates, the simple knitwear layer is the only way to go. Buffy Reid, the founder of British knitwear brand &Daughter, had temperamental weather in mind when she launched the underpinnings collection – a series of super-fine cashmere T-shirts, cardigans, polo shirts and crewneck sweaters – in, well, July. “Technically, it’s the hottest time of the year,” she admits. “But people are travelling, it’s hot and cold, and they’re seeking versatile wardrobe pieces.” Reid had been plotting lighter-weight knitwear to complement her offering of traditional sweaters, having clocked a shift in seasonless shopping. The final yarn, supplied by Scottish manufacturer Todd & Duncan, is a blend of 64 per cent cashmere and 36 per cent cotton. “Cotton gives it that lovely breathability and a slightly crisper finish. It’s not a woolly winter sensibility – it’s wearable all year round.” The Emer cotton-cashmere T-shirt has since become a bestseller. “A knitted T-shirt seems like a misnomer but it has an elegance to it.” I too had my doubts about its usefulness, but I’m now a full convert. 

The temperamental weather may also have inspired the return of that most traditional ensemble: the twinset (wear it with or without the pearls). Seen on the AW24 catwalks at Prada (in two-tone combinations), Miu Miu and Chanel, it’s adding an element of polish to weird-weather season. Reid has reintroduced the combination into her offering at &Daughter as it feels so relevant again. As she observes: “It’s a bit Rachel Green in Friends – easy but still ladylike. We’ve had a few customers buy a T-shirt. Then they’ve bought the cardigan.”  

It’s a bit Rachel Green in Friends – easy but still ladylike

Dutch knitwear label Extreme Cashmere has (perhaps unsurprisingly) long advocated for all-year cashmere. Its latest “extra fine” weave is a super-thin fibre that feels like silk and lends itself to tank tops, T-shirts and shawls. “It almost feels like a nightdress, it’s so light,” enthuses founder Saskia Dijkstra, a knitwear nerd whose 20 years of experience in manufacturing for brands including Joseph and Jil Sander left her with a little black book of expert cashmere suppliers and factories in Hangzhou, China. Extreme Cashmere’s latest innovation for SS25 is a cashmere-wool weave that blends 70 per cent merino wool with 30 per cent cashmere, offering a lighter, drier feel. “From the very beginning, we’ve focused on layering, especially layering heavier cashmere pieces together,” she says. “We’ve also seen customers mix and match different qualities, like wearing cashmere over cotton-cashmere.”

Maria Lemos is one such customer. When we speak, she’s holidaying on the windy Greek island of Patmos where she has a home, wearing an Extreme Cashmere cotton-cashmere dress. “Tonight, I’m taking the boat to Athens, and the temperature drops by 10ºC on the boat, so I’ll be adding a full cashmere sweater on top,” she reports. As the owner of the insouciantly curated Marylebone boutique Mouki Mou, she has observed a clear shift in customers seeking out layering. “We sell underpinnings really well – T-shirts, rollnecks, undergarments to wear under a shirt. I bought these Casey Casey merino roll-necks in bright colours [for the shop] – I didn’t want to stock them, they were so expensive. They sold out in a week. People were buying them to style under a shirt, adding colour to a neutral base,” she says.  

On the subject of merino wool: cast off those dusty aspersions. Merino wool’s superior breathability and moisture-wicking properties mean it can still preserve an aura of chic. At Sheep Inc, a London-based knitwear label that allows customers to track the supply chain of its New Zealand-sourced merino-wool sweaters via an NFC tag attached to its hems, demand for thinner layers has soared 35 per cent year-on-year. “Our transitional layers perform particularly well in the UK, where the sales contribution is 10 per cent higher compared to the rest of the world,” says James Morgan-Jee, Sheep Inc’s head of production. Meanwhile John Smedley’s long-sleeved, extra-fine merino wool polo shirts have a cult following among Paris fashion insiders (the appropriately luxurious “truffle” shade is trending).

New York designer Maria McManus is another thin-knit evangelist. Her eponymous brand first started showing sheer knits in 2021; the sheer polo style was the spring 2024 collection’s bestseller. “It strikes that perfect balance between feminine sheerness and a more masculine austereness that I like,” she says. “I also like to layer the finer knits on top of each other, or wear them around my neck as a scarf or cape.” Equally notable are Attersee’s Whisper knits, spun from a blend of fine-gauge Italian cashmere, merino wool and silk for a sleek, streamlined finish.  

If this all sounds like anorak territory – and it’s true that analysing knitwear compositions might not be habitual for many shoppers – then consider it a rational response to a freakish climate and an economy where every pound counts. As Philip Larkin might observe, “autumn has caught us in our summer wear”. Increasingly, that’s a good thing.