Tweedy

I don't wear a lot of browns, but they are useful. Corduroy or moleskin pants, tweed jackets, boots—all look good in shades of brown and coordinate well with clothing in other colors.

I've had this sweater for well over a decade, maybe closer to 15 years. It's from the Macy's house brand Club Room. I was attracted to it because of the tweedy weave, with the variations in hues woven into it. (I know it looks sort of gray in this picture, but that's just my camera—it's definitely brown.)

The elbow patches were not original; I wore the sweater a lot, and holes developed in the elbows, so the Mrs. added the patches. Now you see this on sweaters all the time.

I've gone to pretty much all V-neck sweaters now, because I prefer that look, but I held onto this one because I liked it so much, and because I figured I'd never find anything similar enough to it. Until this fall that was true, but then a tweedy V-neck showed up at Club Monaco.

Not that long ago, there weren't even any Club Monaco stores in the US. The chain originated in Canada, and even after they opened stores here, the clothes they sold were a slightly more Eurofied iteration of Banana Republic. But a couple of years ago a new design director came in, and their style has shifted toward a decidedly more J. Crew aesthetic.

I'd still never bought anything there, and had only been in the Prudential Center store one or two times, finding nothing of interest. But I checked their website every once in a while, just so I'd have an idea of what they were offering, and that's where I saw this sweater:

It's a shade lighter than the old crewneck, but otherwise it's very similar, right down to the nubs of different-shaded yarns woven into the main color. There was also a dark brown version that went on sale almost immediately, but I had to wait three months for this one to get marked down, and then wait a little longer for CM to offer an extra 30% off sale merchandise, which brought it down to around half of its original price.

It doesn't have any elbow patches, but the Mrs. is going to add them.