With the colder portion of fall right around the corner, why not impress your family and friends at Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving with a colorful, chunky, patterned sweater? Perfect for the upcoming winter weather (and can evolve with your wardrobe as the time moves forward), the chunky sweater is a classic staple piece to liven up anyone’s closet. 

Chunky sweaters have popped up in many fall 2021 menswear collections. Shows including Bode, Junya Watanabe, and S.S Daley all showcase chunky sweaters. Other iterations of the sweater  — like cardigans and vests — have also shown up in these collections and display how these sweaters can add texture, color, pattern, and overall visual interest to an outfit very easily. 

Runways aren’t the only places we’ve seen these sweaters pop up; with a resurgence in Princess Diana’s relevancy, her iconic look of oversized sweaters and bike shorts has reemerged in celebrities wardrobes for both casual wear and outfits for the gym. In particular, season 4 of Netflix’s The Crown showcases great inspiration for how to style chunky sweaters.

Now, where would one find this trend? Your grandparents’ closet is a great place to start. Grandparents seem so comfortable wrapping themselves in woolen sweaters; while I find these are typically not as patterned as others, they still make a great basic piece. 

Another place with an overabundance of sweaters is a thrift store. Affordable, sustainable and unexpected, the thrift store has a conglomerate of vintage items from who-knows-when. Personally, I have the best luck finding great embroidered, woven, and durable sweaters when I travel to the thrift. If you do not have the time to visit a thrift in-person, online retailers are still a great option; for this, I would recommend the online store Beyond Retro. This is a great retailer with curated vintage sweaters dating their pieces from the 1960’s onward. 

If you’re looking for a more expensive and, perhaps, better quality find, look no further than the Vestiaire Collective, an online store that sells vintage designer pieces from Gucci to Prada. Just because their pieces are designer, however, does not mean they are not affordable; while they may be pricier than your typical Goodwill, if you are searching for a nice Burberry or Gucci, their prices are reasonable. 

And finally, the makers of Princess Di’s iconic lamb-patterned sweater have risen from the grave to re-release her timeless piece once more; this can be found at the website of clothing maker Warm & Wonderful. Coming in a range of colors, this sweater can suit all body types and outfits; while this may cost you a pretty penny, it would be a pretty penny well spent. 

Chunky sweaters are timeless, affordable, durable, and add vibrancy to any simple outfit. So make that final leap into late fall, and live your indie main character dreams.