Sweater Over a Button-Down Shirt?
Following up on a previous post which mentions base layers, I’ve been asked about the logistics of wearing a knitted sweater over a button-down shirt.
“The combination of the two is something I always see in fashion photos and movies, but when I try to replicate this look, it just doesn’t work. I feel so uncomfortable! What’s the trick?”
I know exactly what you mean. And I will give the short, direct answer first:
If you find that a sweater feels uncomfortable (or looks ‘off’) over a button-down shirt, it is usually a sizing issue: The sweater is too small.
In order to be worn comfortably over a button-down shirt, a sweater needs to be fairly relaxed in size. Here is why:
Button-down shirts, assuming we are referring to the traditional kind, are made out of woven fabric - which is considerably more rigid than a knitted fabric. In addition, button-down shirts are made by means of fairly intricate pieced/ seamed construction, which further contributes to their rigidity. A hand-knitted sweater, on the other hand, is made out of stretchy and fluid fabric - and the looser your tension the more this is the case.
Put simply: When you wear a knitted sweater over a button-down shirt, you are wearing a stretchy, fluid garment over a rigid, structured one.
Your body is therefore receiving conflicting messages from these two layers. The outside garment allowing for stretch and a certain fluidity of movement, and the one closest to your skin restricting it. This in itself can feel weird. But it will feel especially weird, if the sweater is close-fitting.
On its own, or over an equally stretchy (knitted/ jersey) base layer, you can wear a sweater with a fairly small amount of ease, or even zero ease, or even negative ease, because it will stretch to accommodate your movements. But when you introduce a woven under-layer into the equation, this changes. The rigidity of the button down-shirt and the small size of the sweater over it, now ‘team up’ to restrict your movements. You might be able to physically get the sweater on over the shirt, but the combination will feel constricting - even though on their own each garment is wearable.
Unless you allow lots of room between the sweater and the shirt (which can only happen if the size of the sweater is large enough to allow for this), the drape of the sweater’s fabric will also show unsightly bunching of the shirt’s more rigid fabric underneath.
Notice for instance, that in the photo above, the fabric of the sweater appears to fall smoothly over the shirt. This can only happen because the sweater is oversized. Otherwise, the same knitted fabric would stretch over the folds in the shirt’s fabric, looking lumpy.
As I explained all this in person, to the person who had asked the question, they asked one more thing which I thought was interesting: Why is it then, that in photos and movies the sweaters often do not look oversized?
Based on my own experience taking photos, I can say that on camera a garment always looks more close-fitting than what is actually is. For example, the sweater in the photo above is being modelled with over 20cm/ 8” of ease.
In professional fashion photos and in movies, they likewise tend to use oversized garments - because these look better on camera. If needed, the stylists on set then strategically pin the garments in place behind the models/ actors backs in a way not visible to the viewer, to make the garments look more tailored. I know it’s a shock, but fashion photos and movies are not reality!
Happily, with some consideration regarding sizing, the button-down shirt and sweater combination is wearable in real life, if that is something you would like to try.
Pattern: Spleodar Pullover
Yarn: Höner och Eir Nutiden
