Luxe List | 11/14/2008 3:10 pm

Mary Wells: How to Keep Warm During the Cold Winter

Only 41 days until Christmas! wOw’s Gypsy introduces her sweater awards.

I haven’t told you about my sweater search. Few people in the Western world need a new sweater. But there are mountains of sweaters out there now and coming on for the holidays. There are some great ones, a lot of unbelievably ordinary clones — and some that are so terrible I shake to think who could receive one in a Christmas box.

Click here for photos of Mary’s favorite sweaters.

There are a lot of fine sweater T-shirts this fall in the more expensive lines. Perhaps they are a way of easing customers into buying the big fancy sweaters or jackets to wear over them. I looked hard at those sweater T-shirts. They are so useful. Armani and Loro Piana always make good ones. They come and go in most other lines. But this year I award First Prize to Akris. They have produced the lightest, finest wool and silk long-sleeve T-shirts for under balmy little jackets — you can wear those T-shirts under different jackets from morning through the night. Akris has made them in a wide selection of subtle, interesting colors too. I think those T-shirt sweaters are an astute gift for anyone from 16 years old to 100.

Here are my Serious Sweater Awards: Brunello Cucinelli gets one for its fox hooded zip cardigan. I saw it when fall arrived in Capri and again in Monte Carlo. Gucci has a similar one. They aren’t over the top, these fur-collared sweaters. They are chic and cuddly. Next — although I have to admit there has never been a Loro Piana sweater I didn’t like — this year their indoor-outdoor sweater coats are special. One, a long creamy beige cable-knit and the other a sleek navy fitted jacket. Both have that celebration quality of Loro Piana — the only drawback to them is that strangers actually tend to stroke your arm or your shoulder. Armani has a black-and-white-stripe cashmere coat that is indoor-outdoor and reeks taste. And maybe my favorite so far is Hermès’s new v-neck pullover and cardigan set with rough, hairy edging. Doesn’t sound great? It is.

These are luxury sweaters but they are class acts; they aren’t frivolous, in style only for the moment. They aren’t frivolous in price either. But there are fancier, costlier ones around that are not more wonderful. This Christmas one of these would make a gift you will see on a good friend for years and years.

Looking around from country to country I have been impressed by how much black is being sold. My friends in the stores say color is what you see in magazines and on websites. Black is what women are buying. There are fantastic little black dresses by the best of designers with slits up the leg or unusual architectural shapes. Women are going to wear them short or knee-length or longer but they’re going to wear a lot of black. It looks as if the stores called it right in setting aside strong colors for handbags.

Click here for Mary Wells’s Luxe List Part One: Tasty Temptations for Under the Tree Click here for Mary Wells’s Luxe List Part Two: From Stems to Sunglasses to Sparkles
Click here for Mary Wells’s Luxe List Part Three: The Women Shouldn’t Have ALL the Fun …
Click here for Mary Wells’s Luxe List Part Four: The Future is Now

Read more about: Christmas, Gypsy, Holidays, luxe list, Shopping

135 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I just discovered a great way to warm up on a cold Chicago day. My son and I stopped at “Julius Meinl” in Wrigleyville last week on a very cold day. I ordered a hot mocha, the name of which I cannot remember, but it was made with espresso, cocoa, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. It was delicious, hot and spicy, and just the thing after the brisk walk to the shop!

By DeBúrca obj on 11/14/2008 9:13 pm

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DE B…keep reading for invitation to Denver!

By Agyness O on 11/16/2008 7:29 pm

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DeBurca, I think what you describe is commonly called “Mexican Hot Chocolate” - One caveat, it’s easy to make at home (use the cinnamon stick for the stirrer, but add powdered milk to the lot, or better yet, the powdered whole milk from Mexico. It’s great stuff as a coffee creamer and for cooking in general. NIDO makes it. I’ve found it at Walmart, and since the Nestle products are close to it, I suspect they’ve taken it over, too. (Sigh … that company’s raped Mexico and S. America - a whole new topic.)

By C jay on 11/17/2008 9:33 am

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Yes I’ve made Mexican Hot Chocolate before and this is quite similar except that it is an espresso drink, which makes it even better!

By DeBúrca obj on 11/17/2008 9:59 am

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I love my Faux fur blanket to toss over my legs at night when I’m watching TV Also when I’m at the Computer it keeps me nice and warm. I have several of them……….I’ve seen them at most stores for $100 but I got mine at Costco for $40……great buy so I got all my kids and grandkids one to.

By Dona Howlett on 11/15/2008 5:37 am

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Dona, keep reading for invitation to Denver!

By Agyness O on 11/16/2008 7:30 pm

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Sweaters … sigh. Like the longing for life my search for a good sweater has often led me to alternate but treasured finds and personal breakthroughs. I’ve often ached for the warm embrace of sweater only to realize that, for me, there is a different path. The very few sweaters that have returned my love and care have long since moved on to a warm and cozy spot in my book of memories. One that works for me can be as rare a find as a truly loyal and trusted friend. Still I clamber on year after year in the quest for my woven holy grail and emerge in midwinter resigned to layers of a less affectionate weave . If it isn’t the cut its the stitch, the touch, the drape, the weight, or a blast of loose fibers in my eyes or up my nose. Where other women gain advantage by their sweaters my overall look and energy is usually diminished. I’m not especially picky so why don’t they work for me?! If it isn’t roundly highlighting the worst of me it’s concealing the best. If it isn’t dragging me down its cinching me up. Arms that morph into a perfect Hobbit form or stretch to suit a tree sloth. Necks that loosen to reveal my deficient cleavage or to lasso me for branding. Pills, pulls, warping and lint. Scratching, gripping, bulking and consuming … you’d think that I’d admit defeat and give up the ship. Never! I battle on because the rare reward is worthy of the struggle. Never give in–never … never yield to bad garments; never yield to apparently overwhelming might of poor quality and design. I keep up the fight because for me it isn’t the destination - its the dream and the hope.

By E . on 11/15/2008 10:43 am

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E. Flynn, this comment is just too perfect. No one could have said this better. You rock.

By Agyness O on 11/16/2008 2:52 pm

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Ladies of WOW . . . Let’s be civil here. We all know this the ultimate in websites for beautiful women, don’t we - well, don’t we?? As we who write with regularity with such superior prose - as many of us do - are considered by the owners to be “WOW Women” and truly, ladies, this is just a very slight favor we are being asked to do: to dress the part and make them proud of us. Is it that difficult? (YOu don’t have to answer). If you go along with me so far, the only bump in WOW’s world is that they can’t have it both ways. We are talents — big talents - whose writing and thinking abilities have gotten us far in the world. To hold up our end on WOW when questions are sprewed out with shotgun frequency, it requires our fine minds to sometimes ponder, carefully choosing the quality of prose suitable to such a site. We must hold the standard — but this comes at quite a loss of social life when we are composing prose sent round the world at such speed. There are some days I don’t get out of my Neiman-Marcus robe with that oh so tasteful line of gold that runs along the seams. I have been told that if you don’t dress the part of WOW, your confidence isn’t at the highest and the beautiful flow of words is not attainable. Ms. Wells, I try to do my part. Yes, I am writing late as today was a day off for a round of Bloomies and Neiman and the specialty shops on the avenue in my spikes. Of course, I followed WOW policy of wearing black - rather smartly I should say. But what Ms. Wells didn’t tell us is that black is black and doesn’t need cost a fortune - for no one looks at it if you dress it up with that scarf that rich boyfriend eons ago bought you in Paris - that flash of color around your neck and then your head held high (as we all know that high head means no neck wrinkles) and you will know that absolutely no one - I mean NO ONE - is going to finger the fabric of your dress. Why, you don’t even get close to the rabble!! Oh - the other trick is to walk down the Avenue rapidly — even if the spikes kill you - and the brilliant flash of scarf and your beautifully made up face, courtesy of your bathroom mirror, will have men running ahead to open the door of Bloomies — as that is obviously the direction you on your next run to. Yes — you know me — Joanie takes it all in. And you know the black that “everyone” is wearing? In our large city it is called Mourning Black. You see, some of us are getting our economic bad news direct from WOW - but wherever? - there are large numbers of us that know our country only seems in the dumper so far — and the fall into the depths of the Grand Canyon is still to come. “The people on the street” — sorry, we don’t usually mention THEM — have taken to the new BLACK “in” look and don’t even know it when some already have tears in their eyes. There is heavy mourning going on for what is no more. But have no fear — as black is chic! Little do they know they are a fashion first, poor things. Darlings, I am so sorry to say — as I know you all follow my fashion leads as I come from the “very big city” - that E. Flynn has already stolen my thunder on sweaters, hitting every nail on the head. This hurts, as it cuts my fashion commentary short, but I am thinking of a daily column detailing your day and evening wear so you will not have to paw through that fabulous walk-in closet with that lighting system over its full length mirror that almost purrrrrrs: You’re beautiful … a WOW woman to the very core. And to all the regulars, please do not miss Ms. Agyness herself below who will take WOW one better with our club for the inner circle of WOW writers with OFTER — our exclusive new club forming where we will be soon meeting and greeting some of the would-be- but weren’t U.S. leaders who have not made Obama’s cut. These men will need OFTER — and of course, the added attraction of the liveliest, laughingest gals of WOW. (If you want the first scoop, we’ll be there with them and you should be — as the more the merrier, don’t we say?) So look for Agy below as she’s the cat’s pajamas (oops, don’t tell Ms. Wells though — as she says only nighties will do!!!)

By joan larsen on 11/16/2008 6:54 pm