Laura Byalowska holds up a doozy of a handknit Christmas sweater: “I really need to know what these sheep are doing,” she says of the bestial mistletoe theme. The stylist has stacked a pile of tacky treasures beside her romantic and elegant Anna Karenina sleigh-ride scene in the window of 69 Vintage on Queen St. W.
“Ugly is hip,” says owner Kealan Sullivan, who seeks out the gaudy and the nice from her secret sources all year long. “The line between good and bad in fashion is often a blur. But the Christmas sweater phenomenon makes it clear: The ugliest is the best. It is competitive. You are giving the best gift possible — humour — in the middle of a seasonal stress-a-thon.”
The ugly Christmas sweater phenomenon has reached the tipping point: “The trend re-emerged at vintage about five years ago,” says Sullivan. Her sweaters sell from $40 to $79.
“But the demand is so high it has outpaced supply, so you have to look to the big brands” that have joined the revival.
Indeed, the windows at Joe Fresh a little further east on Queen feature pieces that take the general idea and make it chic again: Nordic-style snowflake sweaters and naif pastoral scenes in the $49 to 69 range.
“When it is styled for the runway,” says Adrienne Shoom, fashion director for the brand, “we make it sleek and sophisticated, skinny layers over skinny black ponte pants. Very ’70s in Gstaad.”
But in real life, it is the edge of tacky that holds appeal.
Alexander Thomson works in the public-relations department at Joe Fresh, and he looked no further than the orange logo.
“My boyfriend invited me to his work Christmas party, held this year at The Spoke Club on King West Street in Toronto. The theme of the party was ‘Tacky Christmas Sweaters.’ Thomson wore the Nordic sweater.
“It has a hand-made, loose-knit, vintage-patterned-feel that once may have been associated with an ’80s après-ski look but now is much more mainstream. Most of the party-goers dressed in kind, wearing sweaters that five years ago would’ve been tacky but now are actually really cool. The great thing is I’ve worn the sweater several times since the party.”
Hunting down the perfect tacky sweater has become a seasonal hunt. So naturally the craze has spawned a frenzy of online activity: Check out uglysweaterstore.com and christmassweaters.ca, which both deliver hereabouts. There is also buttuglysweaters.com and tipsyelves.com, the last of which donates a sweater to a child in need for every ugly one you get yourself.
So how did square become hip?
Johanne Durocher writes a Toronto-based blog called Fashion in Motion. She ponders the meaning of the Mark Darcy sweater.
“I think that what makes the ugly sweater so compelling is that it had a legitimate fashion moment. Most of us wear it as retro ridicule but all you need is a walk through a suburban mall to see that knit pastoral scenes never really went away. There’s an appreciation out there for kittens playing with balls of yarn and happy-faced snowmen lined up like cedar hedge.”
But it is the urbanites whose heads are muddled. Perversity, she says, is the point: “I think that our urban sense of taste is now super cynical and we expect our gingerbread houses to be organic hand-milled gluten-free and look like Louis Vuitton’s flagship store — and the same goes for our clothes. I think that we’re in a bizarre moment of contradictions and despite our craving of authentic hand-made, we’re kind of giant snobs about anything that looks it. Cutesy is out and we’ve decided to appropriate it. “
Briony Smith is also a fashion blogger and a columnist for The Grid. She sees the poignant yearning beneath the subversive fashion play. “It’s the usual hipster mockery of anything worn by the unhip.
“Reclaiming” it gives them a sense of superiority. The sweet, sweet irony, however, is that, deep, deep down inside, my hipster brethren secretly love wearing more unhip, even classic, clothes because they make them feel safe and grown-up: It’s nostalgia for a sense of security, rather than the fashion item itself. Mock all you want, but the people wearing Christmas sweaters in earnest often have a car. And a house. And a partner. We can get a little taste of the stability that comes with a pair of khakis and a button-down — or a Christmas sweater.”
And we will take a side of warm and fuzzy to go with that.
