Six things, laid out plainly

I have bought my husband sweaters for forty-odd years. This is the first one I have ever written a letter about.

Six things this plain blue zip-neck sweater gets right that a lifetime of too-tight and too-baggy ones never did, from a wife who went back for a second color before the season was out.

Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read

Let me introduce myself properly before I say another word, the way my mother raised me to. I am Peggy, I am 63, and I live in Austin, Texas with my husband Frank, who is 67. I have been buying that man his sweaters since before our children were born, and in all that time I have never once thought one was worth a second look, never mind a letter. Well. I have changed my mind.

The sweater I am writing about is the Theodore, from Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin I have been buying my own things from for a while now. It is a men’s sweater with a short zip at the neck and a little stand-up collar, in a soft, smooth knit. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.

I first saw it at the football. Frank has had the same two seats in the stands at the college games for going on twenty years, and most of this season we have sat two rows behind the same man. Wind, drizzle, the first norther of the fall, and there he is with his collar up to his chin, looking like he has somewhere better to be afterwards. I had always assumed his wife pressed him into something expensive before every game. Then at the last home game I noticed he was in blue, and the week before it had been gray, and the week before that a sort of oatmeal. The same sweater, three colors. At halftime I leaned over and asked his wife, plainly. Her name is Laverne, she bought him all three, and she wrote the name down for me on the back of my ticket. Read on.

The blue one, over the arm of Frank’s chair, where it lives when it is not on him. Which is not often.

Here is what forty-odd years of buying a man sweaters taught me. They come in two piles. The smart ones, that look nice in the store and then strain across the middle the minute he sits down to supper. And the comfortable ones, that he will happily live in, and that hang off him like a feed sack by Christmas and make him look ten years older than he is.

A sweater for a man his age was either smart and tight or comfortable and shapeless. I had stopped expecting one that was both, and I had stopped expecting him to wear anything I bought.

This is the first one I have bought him that manages both, and having watched him live in it through a wet end of September, two home games and a Sunday lunch at our daughter’s, I can tell you it comes down to six things.

The morning it came. I opened it on the bed to get a good look before he could get his hands on it.

1

The zip at the neck does two jobs

This is the one Laverne put at the top of her list, and she was right. There is one short zip at the neck, and it stops at the top of the chest, so it is not a cardigan and nothing flaps open. Done up, the little collar stands right up around his neck, which is how the man two rows down wears it on a raw November afternoon. Undone, it sits open over a shirt collar, and suddenly he looks dressed for Sunday lunch without having to find a tie. Same sweater, two looks, one zip.

Sunday morning, zip half down over his checked shirt. He looked like he was going somewhere. He was going to the gas station for the paper.

★★★★★

My husband wears it zipped right up for walking the dog and open over a shirt when we go out to dinner. It looks sharp both ways.

Linda K., Center

3

It is cut neat, without being tight

This is the one I did not see coming. The boutique describes it as a tailored fit that does not feel tight or restrictive, and that is exactly how it sits on Frank. It does not cling across the middle the way the smart ones always did, and it does not hang off his shoulders like a borrowed coat. It just looks like it is his size. I stood him in the backyard with the rake to see it properly, and for the first time in years I did not want to tug at anything.

Frank in the backyard with the rake, leaves everywhere. Neat, not tight. I did not have to tug at a thing.

★★★★★

Every sweater I buy my husband either strains over his tummy or swamps him. This one just fits him. I ordered his usual size.

Sharon M., Hemphill

5

It keeps its shape

This is where every sweater I have ever bought him has let me down. By the second month the cuffs have gone baggy, the hem has dropped and it looks tired. The boutique says this one holds its shape and stays crisp after repeated wear, and so far that is exactly what it has done. The cuffs are still neat around his wrists, the collar still stands up, and it folds up on the kitchen table looking the way it did the morning it came.

Folded on our kitchen table after weeks of wear. Collar up, cuffs neat. I checked.

★★★★★

He has worn it most days since it came and it still looks new. The cuffs have not gone baggy, which is a first in this house.

Carolyn S., Center

6

It goes with what he already owns, in eight colors

With Frank, this is the whole battle. He will not wear anything that means buying something else to go with it. The Theodore goes with his jeans for the game, with his good slacks for church, and over a shirt for anything dressier, so there was nothing else to buy. It comes in eight colors, blue, gray, black, white, beige, green, purple and pink, and in sizes from small right up to 3XL. I went back for the gray. Laverne tells me the green is next on her list.

Game day. Thermos, cap, keys, sweater. He is ready before I am now.

★★★★★

Bought the gray for his birthday and he wears it with jeans and with his suit pants. Now he has asked for the green one as well.

Glenda W., Carthage

The Theodore, against the sweaters he has been making do with

You can carry on buying him sweaters that are either smart or comfortable and never both, like I did for forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.

About the price

The Theodore is $46.95, down from $94.00. Every color and every size is the same price.

I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that it is on sale while the first of the fall stock goes, and once this stock is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have spent more than $94.00 over the years on sweaters for Frank that went to the thrift store inside a year, so $46.95 for one he actually reaches for made it an easy yes.

And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other wives’ words.

If your husband’s sweaters either strain across the middle or hang off him by Christmas, or he has quietly stopped wearing anything you buy him, this is where I would start. Take a look at the colors before his size goes, because the first of the fall stock will not wait. And if you ever see a man two rows in front of you in the stands looking sharper than anybody has a right to in the drizzle, you will know where I got the idea.

Peggy

THE THEODORE ZIP-NECK SWEATER

★★★★☆ 4.2 out of 5 from 300+ reviews

$94.00 $46.95

• Short zip at the neck with a stand-up collar
• Pulls on over the head, no buttons
• Tailored fit, not tight or restrictive
• Soft, smooth and breathable
• Holds its shape after repeated wear
• Eight colors, sizes S to 3XL
• Free shipping

See If His Size Is Still In Stock

Sale on now. Once this stock is gone, it is gone.