Eight buttons I can fasten without looking down at them.

On the cardigan whose buttons were made big on purpose — and every edge on it finished in orange.

By Sandra Thompson · Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Posted August 2026 · 6 min read

I am 63 and there is a small thing that has crept up on me over the last few years, and I have never heard another woman say it out loud. Small buttons have become a nuisance.

Not impossible. Just enough of a nuisance that I have stopped reaching for two cardigans I actually like, because doing them up means standing still, looking down, and using both hands on each one in turn. So I wear them open, which is not how they were meant to look, or I wear something else entirely.

It was my daughter Sarah, up in Boston, who said the problem was the buttons and not my hands, and pointed me at a small family boutique here in South Carolina. Before I tell you what it did, I think you should read the Clarke family's letter first.

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 Mabel, 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.

1The buttons are large, and that was the decision

Eight big brown buttons down a firm ribbed placket, each one you can find with your fingers without looking. Most knitwear uses the smallest button that will hold, because small looks delicate in a photograph. We went the other way. It is a design choice before it is anything else — big buttons look deliberate on a chunky knit — and it happens to make the thing usable at a bus stop with cold hands.

2Thin stripes, and a solid band down the middle

Women ask us about the stripes, so here is the honest answer. They are narrow lines with a good deal of plain blue between them, which is not the same thing as a wide banded stripe at all — the ground color is what you see, and the orange reads as a fine detail across it. And the placket runs the full length of the front in solid ribbing, so there is one clean vertical line down the middle of everything.

3Orange on every edge, not just the stripes

Look at where the orange actually goes. Around the neckband, down both sides of the placket, around each cuff and along the hem. Every edge of the garment is outlined in it. That is what stops a simple knit looking plain — the color is drawing the shape of the cardigan rather than just sitting on it, and it takes an extra step at the machine that most makers skip.

4The stripes turn at the shoulder

There is a separate knitted panel across each shoulder, and on it the stripes turn ninety degrees and run down the arm instead of around the body. It is not decoration. That panel is what gives a roomy cardigan a defined shoulder to hang from, so the whole thing sits where it should instead of sliding down your arm all day.

5Cut roomy, with sleeves to match

The body has real room in it and the sleeves are full all the way down before they gather into the cuff. That means it goes over a collared shirt without the shirt bunching at the elbow, which is where most cardigans fail — they fit over a bare arm and nothing else. Ribbed cuffs and a ribbed hem hold it all in place at the ends.

6Five colorways, and sizes S to XL

The Mabel comes in five colorways and the one you see me wearing is the blue with orange, which I chose because it was the least like anything else I own. There is a soft pink, a warm brown and two darker ones besides. Sizes run S, M, L and XL, cut generously — it is meant to go over other things, so take your usual size and it will have room in it.

The Mabel, against the cardigans you wear open

Why they're clearing it now

They priced the Mabel at $139.95 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 well below half of what it was.

Mine arrived a few days later in a box on the bed. I did every button up before I put it on, standing at the end of the bed, just to see how long it took.

I do not usually write things like this. But there are two cardigans hanging in my closet that I like and never fasten, and I had quietly decided that was something about me. It was not. It was eight small buttons somebody chose because they photographed well. If you have a cardigan you only ever wear open, I hope you find your size before it clears.

— Sandra Thompson · Mount Pleasant, SC

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.