The ten most famous cardigans
[Hat tip: Ann Althouse.]
The Guardian has published an article entitled “The 10 Greatest Cardigans”:
And “cardigans” isn’t some special British word for something more important than a sweater that buttons down the front. This is actually an article identifying and ranking the great button-down sweaters in history. #7 is that thick, nubby thing Jeff Bridges wore in “The Big Lebowski.” #4 is that even rattier thing Kurt Cobain wore in Nirvana’s MTV “Unplugged” performance. #1 is the J. Crew “symbol of Michelle Obama’s mastery of soft-power semiotics” that FLOTUS wore on her first visit to London
I saw “The Big Lebowski” and although I remember it pretty well I confess I didn’t remember the cardigan. Of Cobain’s sweater I have zero knowledge. And Michelle Obama’s cardigan? It didn’t do any more for me than the expression “soft-power semiotics” does. And yet Michelle’s sweater topped the Guardian list at #1, I suppose because everything the Obamas ever did was intensely praiseworthy to the Guardian.
This following didn’t make the cut. But I submit that it’s well worth at least honorable mention and maybe more:
When I saw the headline of the article, I was almost positive that I knew what the #1 greatest cardigan would be: this one, of course.
I really don’t know how the Guardian could have ignored it.
My first thought was the young Bill Gates, but his preference was for pull-over sweaters, usually with a V-shaped neck.
The Guardian gets a big demerit for starting with Katie Holmes at #10. I wouldn’t bother with her unless she had a complete wardrobe malfunction. The Guardian redeems themselves a bit with Monroe. Melania always dazzles.
One definition of fascism is when politics permeates and percolates into every aspect of ones life. Guardian putting her at the top of the “famous cardigans” list is hardly surprising. After all Vogue put her on the cover three times.
As the Guardian article notes, ‘She even wore one to meet the Queen, a choice Oscar de la Renta slammed, saying: “You don’t go to Buckingham Palace in a sweater.” Well, she did and it was great.’ Well, we also remember her frisking the Queen with her roving hands. But then she always exemplified that sort of behaviour: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4531602/Michelle-Obama-steps-shoulder-baring-Tuscany.html
I have to mention that the whole Big Lebowski furor is kinda bizarre. I’m a big fan of the Coen’s but don’t love all their films. There’s a documentary out there about the Lebowski’s explosion as a classic cult film. It be might included on the DVD disk if you buy or rent one.
The concept was to take a classic Chandler/Philip Marlow story and replace Marlow and associates with The Dude and other slobs. Sounds funny, but maybe it’s just that I like the genre too much to see it f_’d up.
Many years after Lebowski was released Jeff Bridges and co-stars (of some Sci-Fi film) were at Comicon festival and while waiting to go on stage, the crowd went into an uproar of chanting. None of the stars knew what was going on. The curtains opened and then they could tell that the crowd was shouting “The DUDE.”
For what it’s worth, it is very questionable on whether a sitting US president should be a participant to a civil suit while in office.
It goes against the statements of our our Founders on this.
Clinton committed a crime, but it was done due to the fact the judiciary decided a president, any president, can be sued in covil court disrupting a president’s ability to run the Executive.
So, right now, any president can be sued in a civil court and that president has to stop or multitask to deal with it.
Yeah, Clinton and his penis!
Mister Rogers should have topped the list.
(Yay, editing function!)
Yes, Mister Rogers should have been at the top, but then (a) it’s the Guardian (b) they’re Brits so they probably don’t know no better.
Phrases like “soft-power semiotics” make me want to punch an academic.
I didn’t really get The Big Lebowski, either. Or rather the cult status of it. Seems to have a Monty-Python-like fan base.
Whatever one thinks of Trump, Melania is one beautiful woman.
The Guardian (above) links to the Daily Mirror, in which we find Ms. Obama doing her vulgar best to dress w/ the fashion sense of an adolescent.
Melania, on the other hand…who wouldn’t be proud to stand beside her?
One thing that the link fails to mention is that she was requested not to enter a church whilst her shoulders were bare. Some areas of Italy are very conservative and they have rules what one must wear when in church. MIchelle haughtily ignored them and entered the church anyways.
See https://www.dailywire.com/news/youll-never-believe-what-michelle-obama-wore-12th-joseph-curl
Q. What is the dress code for visiting the cathedral?
A. No bare shoulders and no skirts or shorts above the knee
The concept was to take a classic Chandler/Philip Marlow story and replace Marlow and associates with The Dude and other slobs. Sounds funny, but maybe it’s just that I like the genre too much to see it f_’d
TommyJay: As usual, you are a perceptive chap. I admit I enjoyed Lebowski greatly. And I know it doesn’t hit everyone’s funny bone as it does mine. Humor aside, I never knew where the film was going next and I’m pretty jaded when it comes to movies.
Did you know the John Goodman character was based on writer/director John Milius? Which is funny, if you know the inside baseball.
I also appreciated the affection the Coen Bros brought to Chandler’s work. I didn’t like Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” much at all because it was a harsh deconstruction of Philip Marlowe as an out-of-it and out-of-place 40s detective in a black-and-white suit trying to deal with hip, colorful, 70s LA.
Mr. Rogers sweater isn’t considered a cardigan, because it zips up, rather than buttons. A difference without significance, but there you are.
You would think that Jimmy Carter’s (President Peanut) cardigan, used to push the “turn down your heat” mantra of the late 70s, would have been given some notice. [Maybe it was; I didn’t chase the link.]
Any paper that publishes such a list is dreck, pure and simple. Which the Guardian is and long has been.
I try not to read dreck. Irritates me.
“There are no differences except differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.”
Melania is the most lovely First Lady, tho some might argue for Jackie O.
(I want to be. Jackie Onassis. I want to wear, dark sunglasses. Oh yeah!)
I hardly notice sweaters, but mostly don’t like them. Would rather have a thick shirt, or a thick shirt over a t-shirt. Tho for semi-formal times, instead of a tie, they can heighten the formality a bit.
In Slovakia, multiple computer folk I’ve worked with loved the Big Lebowski. I thought it was just OK.
Recently we saw a movie my wife thought was from the Cohen brothers, This Must Be the Place with Sean Penn as a retired-for-20 years rock star singing depressing songs; the movie had more from Talking Heads:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440345/
It’s an Italian Paolo Sorrentino film. Slow yet very engaging, often very real.
I hate Penn’s politics. His acting here is great.
Melania is the most lovely First Lady, tho some might argue for Jackie O.
(I want to be. Jackie Onassis. I want to wear, dark sunglasses. Oh yeah!)
Melania is a puzzle. Is there anyone who knows what she actually thinks about anything? I’d wager she is opaque to even her closest relations.
I thought it was odd the Guardian didn’t print a picture with each of the 10 “winners” – so how are we supposed to know what the cardigans looked like?
(I did not chase down any of the nominees to see.)
I like Neo’s list better.
https://wgntv.com/2019/11/14/newborn-babies-at-a-pittsburgh-hospital-dressed-up-as-mr-rogers-for-world-kindness-day/
His sweater may have zipped, but the news called it a cardigan anyway; the babies’ are buttoned properly.