Favorites Series: Fair Isle - Topic of the day 4/26/24
What are your favorite fair isle shirts? Favorite pieces at different price points? Do you prefer fair isles or plain patterns? For a fair isle, do you like crew necks, v necks, vests, cardigans, or something else? Who makes the nicest fair isle pattern, and what makes them so nice? What the hell is The Tallest Man On Earth's fair isle?? Actually, someone please ID it so I can cop it plz. The Favorites Series is part of a ~weekly recurring TOTD to replace/updated the 5 year old "Best X for $X" threads on r/mfa.
15 Replies
fair isle vests are the best
fair isle feels like something i should be wearing more often and yet i don't, especially a fair isle vest (i do not need more clothes)
Good ones are frustratingly difficult to find on eBay ime but I was pretty specific about the pattern/style I wanted. I ended up going with Jamieson's of Shetland
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1116800072093532191/1159927452546646148
lots of good ones on ebay; knit knit is a sorta no-name brand with interesting color combos if you can handle it https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1116800072093532191/1202667609011523604 but most "heritage" brands have something; in my experience eddie bauer one is a little tight but great for layering https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1116800072093532191/1214623666537758770
I love this old series from the Shetland Museum of people on Fair Isle wearing fairisles
Nice heritage inspo
I personally much prefer vests. I find the outfit is too busy/hot if it has patterned sleeves and looks odd with plain sleeves. But that's a personal style thing as tunnocks has clearly shown some awesome inspo for the full thing
So, I love just about all things fair isle, and one of the big reasons I love it, is because these sweaters often feature the the Star of Bethlehem (one you see in the main post’s photo) originates from Palestinian tatreez. I also love getting the chance to talk about it and get to teach something about Palestine.
Nobody has ID'd his fair isle yet :nooooo: .....pls....
I have one fair isle sweater, got it super cheap from ebay (duh)
Haven't shown it off in waywt yet due to weather but I find it pretty cute. Esp for like $10 lol
I don't think I want to get another because in socal I only wear them a handful of times per year. but I'd def buy the one TTMOE is wearing one in the OP pic because that sweater has been living rent free in my brain for at least a decade
Brands I've found to have good patterns as I was looking for them secondhand include L.L. Bean, and, surprisingly, J Crew. But I prefer to be brand agnostic and just type "shetland fair isle" in the sweaters section and filter down from there
as @ll.beansandrice says, fair isle vests are really cool. can I justify having one? maybe.... maybe.....
The sweater in the main thread pic looks more Norwegian than fair isle to me
This is a fav sweater of mine. Total jfarrell colors (blue and gray), label says "Hawick knitwear, made in Scotland, 100% lambs wool." Soft, fits well, bought it cheap on eBay. A winner all around!
Yer done well, J
Yeah, this was one of my lucky early eBay finds that really hooked me on second hand. :401k: