A letter from a reader Isaline S
The roomy cardigan that does not make you look wider
Soft ribbed knit in deep wine, five big brass buttons, and a scalloped hem that draws no line across your hip.
I am 63, and I had made my peace with a rule that turns out not to be true: that anything cut generously enough to be comfortable will read as shapeless. Every roomy cardigan I owned proved it. They kept me warm, they hid what I wanted hidden, and they made me look like a woman who had given up on the mirror.
I had started to feel a little invisible in my own clothes.
It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who said the problem was not the size, it was the edges. Then she sent me a link one evening with three words: just read it.
The Clarke family runs a small boutique here in South Carolina, family-run since 1986 — three generations, mother to daughter. The cardigan is called the Isaline, and their letter walks through the handful of things they refused to compromise on. I am going to let their words carry it, because they say it better than I could.
1Cut roomy, and it still keeps a shape
Roomy knitwear usually costs you your outline. We solved that at the edges instead of the size. The hem is shaped into soft rounded scallops rather than cut straight across, so no hard horizontal line lands at your hip, and the front edge sweeps down on a curve. It skims past the middle and never grips a thing.
2A knit soft enough to live in
The rib is knit from a soft, slightly brushed yarn that stays kind at the neck and the wrists — no prickle, nothing that has you rolling your shoulders after an hour. It is the difference between a cardigan you keep on all evening and one that ends up over the back of a chair by eight o'clock.
3Long, wide sleeves that cover your arms
The sleeve is cut full and generous the whole way down and gathered into a ribbed cuff at the wrist. There is room through the upper arm, room to layer underneath, and nothing pulling anywhere — and your arms are covered from shoulder to hand without the sleeve creeping up while you cook.
4Five big brass buttons doing all the work
Running the length of that curved front edge are five very large brass-finished buttons — the sort of thing you would find on a coat that cost several times this. They catch the light as you move and they are the reason a plain wine cardigan reads as something chosen. You need no brooch and no necklace with it.
5Comfortable enough for the sofa, tidy enough for dinner
The collar is the last piece of it. A proper pointed collar sits up at the neck the way a shirt does, so the whole thing looks deliberate rather than thrown on. Wear it open over wide trousers to go out, or closed on the sofa with the paper. It is the same garment and it never looks like loungewear.
6It fits the body you have
We make the Isaline from a size S all the way to 5XL, and every size is cut on the same generous lines — the larger ones are not simply stretched out, and the scallops and the buttons are scaled to stay in proportion. It is meant to sit loose on you, so order the size you usually wear rather than sizing up.
The Isaline, against the cardigans you've been buying
| The usual roomy cardigan | The Isaline | |
|---|---|---|
| The shape | Cut wide, and it reads as width | Scalloped hem, so no line at your hip |
| The sleeves | Tight at the upper arm | Full and wide, closed at the cuff |
| The finish | Small plain buttons, or none | Five large brass buttons on a curve |
| The neck | Flat and open, so it reads as loungewear | A proper pointed collar that sits up |
| The sizes | S to XL, then good luck | S to 5XL, everything scaled to size |
- Cut wide, and it reads as width
- Tight at the upper arm
- Small plain buttons, or none
- Flat and open, so it reads as loungewear
- S to XL, then good luck
- Scalloped hem, so no line at your hip
- Full and wide, closed at the cuff
- Five large brass buttons on a curve
- A proper pointed collar that sits up
- S to 5XL, everything scaled to size
Why they're clearing it now
They priced the Isaline at $209.95 when it launched, and it sold at that price all season. But for America's 250th, the Clarke family wanted to give something back to the women who have kept their doors open since 1986 — so every one is going out at less than a third of what it was.
Mine came in a kraft box on a Tuesday, folded in white tissue. I put it on over what I was already wearing and did not take it off again that day.
The Isaline Oversized Collared Cardigan
- A scalloped hem that draws no line at your hip
- Five large brass-finished buttons on a curved edge
- Long, wide sleeves gathered into a ribbed cuff
- A proper pointed collar that sits up at the neck
- Sizes S to 5XL · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
The Isaline · $64.95 while sizes last
Buy 2 get 10%, buy 3 get 15%, buy 4 get an extra 20% off. When it's gone, it's gone.
I do not usually write things like this. But I had accepted that comfortable and shapeless were the same thing at my age — and this one quietly proved otherwise. If that sounds like you, I hope you find your size before it clears.
— Sandra Thompson · Mount Pleasant, SC
See the Isaline — $64.95 →This is a personal account from a Clarke Family customer. Sandra was not paid to write it. · The Clarke Family · Family Fashion · South Carolina, since 1986 · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.