Advertisement

Princess Diana Crowned the Realm's Next Big Men's Sweatshirt

Photo credit: Getty Images, Rowing Blazers
Photo credit: Getty Images, Rowing Blazers

From Esquire

Over an achingly Zone One breakfast of shakshouka and fruit juice said to be full of 'restorative' ingredients, Jack Carlson was excited. The affable co-founder of Rowing Blazers – a cult label of pepped up prepwear that was borne of a coffee table book documenting the strips and ceremony of varsity rowing teams – had finally got a project going.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

Akin to that feeling of finding a sold out grail on the ninth page of an eBay search, the New Yorker had found not one, but two small labels that produced some of his favourite jumpers of all time. They were almost 40 years old. "Here, take a look," he said, handing over his phone after a quick go-to on Google. There, in liquid retina HD, was a woman in hi-spec, hi-graphic knitwear that could've well been taken from a recent Gucci collection, or a Bella Freud limited release. It was Princess Diana.

That breakfast, permissible back then by its pre-Covid timeline, feels a lifetime ago. Ahhh, meetings. But after negotiating with the Brits that saw business boom in the times of the Sloane Ranger, and after seeing stores and brands open shop once more, Rowing Blazers is ready to go.

Lady Di doesn't immediately seem like the most obvious style reference. Nor the grailiest. But back in the days of pre-internet palace intrigue, the Princess of Wales was an unlikely spiritual predecessor of the modern hypebeast. Think big oversized sweatshirts (the stuff of Shia LaBeouf). Think cycling shorts (the stuff of Hailey Bieber). Think tuxedo hybrid dresses (the stuff of Billy Porter). Princess Diana was well ahead of 2020. And now, she's still setting the course of what could be 2020's best knitwear thus far. By token of the monarchy's byzantine honours system, the late Princess Diana lost the title of HRH. So just switch highness for hypeness.

Photo credit: Rowing Blazers
Photo credit: Rowing Blazers

To one piece of the collection: a slogan knit Vetements would've killed to coin. Upon a soft pink and white base reads 'I'm A Luxury', in the finest Gilly Cooper font, and to the back: 'Few Can Afford'. First produced in the Eighties by British designer George Hostler and broadcaster-cum-intermittent MP Gyles Brandreth, Princess Di foreshadowed the sort of Ivy League-streetwear mash-up that still charms the serpentine queues of Soho's menswearheads.

The second jumper isn't so cryptic. Then designed by Warm & Wonderful (which has since evolved to become Muir & Osborne luxury cashmere), the black sheep knit upon a red sweater could be seen as a prescient forecast of the narrative the British press would spin: Princess Diana was the Windsors' odd one out. It was also a really great jumper, first worn at a polo match in the early Eighties. "As artists, we've always identified with black sheep ourselves: because of a recessive gene, black sheep are born with black wool in flocks of otherwise white sheep," said brand's co-founders of the collab. "Since Diana's first public appearance in one of our bright red sheep jumpers, she and the design have been inextricably linked."

While each piece has been replicated over the last four decades, Rowing Blazers' release marks the first official crossover with the original designers – something that was always important to Carlson. "I can just picture [Warm & Wonderful designers] Joanna and Sally in their twenties, selling their jumpers to Sloane Rangers," says the 33-year-old. "I think there’s a lot of nostalgia in the air right now, and when I was little, my family lived in Hampstead in north London, and my mother had one of the original sheep sweaters. It looks as great now as it did then."

Though released in tandem with Rowing Blazers' first foray into womenswear, Princess Diana's knits are undeniably unisex. Given menswear's predisposition for prep and pastels, there'll be many takers. Carlson was right to be excited.

Available from 15 October in-store at selfridges.com, priced £250 each

Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more delivered straight to your inbox

SIGN UP

Need some positivity right now? Subscribe to Esquire now for a hit of style, fitness, culture and advice from the experts

SUBSCRIBE

You Might Also Like