If it were limited to 4 items, I'd go for different styles over different colors. Chunky cable shawl cardigan, mid weight fleece zip up, mid weight ribbed turtleneck, and fine merino v-neck. As for the color, I'd get them all in charcoal. Boring, I know, but they'd go with any color of coat/jacket and give a nice contrast with lighter tops or blend in easily with dark monochrome looks.
TBH now that I wear jacket+tie for work I barely ever wear sweaters and have donated most of the ones I owned. I have one tobacco brown button-up cardigan that I keep at the office as an emergency "warm layer," one charcoal zip cardigan that was a gift from my mom from her trip to NZ, and one chunky, oatmeal lambswool shawl cardigan that I very rarely wear.
I want to like cardigans on me, but I have a bit of a gut, and I always feel like the buttons end up pulling and just accentuating it. Maybe I just haven't found the right one.
They haven't gotten any love in this thread, but I'm honestly a big fan of crew neck sweaters. They definitely skew casual, but so do I. So if I was just picking 4 sweaters I'd probably do 4 medium weight crew neck sweaters in navy and 3 colors out of black/oatmeal/grey/olive/burgundy.
1 gray shetland crew neck
1 navy merino v-neck
1 other color merino v-neck
1 fisherman's sweater. I love the chunkiness of them.
If I had more space I would throw in something like a nice thick cashmere sweater but good ones cost money and if we go the cheaper route I much prefer merino wool to cheap cashmere.
Last edited by JBarwick; January 24th, 2019 at 11:43 AM.
@Deke, both jcrew and banana republic have shawl collar pullovers that give you that nice chunky collar without the bulky buttons and pockets of a cardigan
My four would be:
camel merino v-neck
navy merino v-neck
light grey thick cashmere polo collar
cream or navy fishermans sweater, either cabled or a chunky waffle knit
The v-necks can do anything from casual to wear under a suit for extra warmth, the other two can go casual to business casual. This was tough for me. Since I don't wear suits at work, I wear a lot of sweaters and I love them them. Nothing feels better to me. I have a pair of vintage thick cashmere sweaters that are unbelievably nice to wear. Recently I've been trying to find a cabled sweater that I like. My wife could knit me one, but that could be $150 in materials alone and it would take a couple months to finish.
2 x fine merino wool cardigan (light grey, wine). Strictly worn under a sport coat.
2 x wool crew neck (burgundy, heathered dark green). Worn as outermost layer, or under a jacket/coat that is not a sport coat.
I'd' have one of each: crewneck, henley, V-neck, cardigan.
2 cotton (probably the crew and the henly); 2 wool.
navy, charcoal, camel, and "fun" color--like a burnt orange or something.