Putting a zip through a Fair Isle yoke should not work. The pattern is built in the round, designed to circle the shoulders unbroken, and cutting it down the middle interrupts the one thing it exists to do.
It works here because the zip is cased in a plain band that reads as a deliberate seam rather than damage, and because the collar above it is a deep ribbed funnel that closes the circle again at the top. The patterned bands repeat at the cuffs and along the hem, and the body between them is left plain so the eye goes where it should.
Zipped to the chin it is a jacket. Open, it is a cardigan. It has never really decided, and that is the appeal.
Details You'll Love
- Fair Isle patterned yoke - circles the shoulders in stacked geometric bands.
- Cased two-way zip - runs in a plain band so the pattern reads as cut deliberately.
- Deep ribbed funnel collar - closes the neckline back into a circle above the yoke.
- Patterned cuffs and hem - repeat the yoke motif at a smaller scale top and bottom.
- Plain cashmere body - left unpatterned between the bands so nothing competes.
