Womens Wool Sweaters
Cozy sweaters are to Ireland as cheese is to the French, or vehicle engineering to the Germans: it’s factually what we’re best at. Better than anyone else, even. What makes the Irish sweater experts? A simple equation: you take a rainy and cold island country, add mostly outdoor occupations (fisherman, farmer) plus the fluffiest sheep around. People working in the wet weather needed to stay warm and dry, so the woolly Aran sweater was born.
Wool is matchless for many reasons. It’s water-repellent, so an Aran sweater can absorb 30% of its weight in water before it feels wet. Wool is also an incredible insulator due to its built-in natural crimp with a high volume of air (read: super-breathable). And it’s thick and warm and SOFT: no scratchy sweaters here, we promise.
So yes, wool is amazing, but it’s not just the natural fiber that’s superlative. What makes an Aran sweater so unique is the centuries of Irish history in every stitch. Each stitch is meaningful, and each kind of stitch (moss, diamond, ladder, trellis, basket, cable, blackberry, honeycomb) means something special. Stitches could represent something as straightforward as wealth and success, or something as ambiguous and far-reaching as the tree of life. Combinations of stitches in knits are no accident: each Irish clan had their own specific design patterns, passed down and perfected from generation to generation.
All of our gorgeous Aran sweaters are part of this tradition. Sometimes we’ve jazzed them up with modern touches (a turtleneck here or a steel zipper there), but the substance and style of each stitch remains intact, same as it ever was.