Ugly Christmas jumpers used to be the domain of grannies and cheesy couples. If you were forced into one, you hid from cameras and tried to get out of it as soon as possible. But something strange has been happening in the last couple of years: people have been getting together to show off their ugly Christmas jumpers. So how did they go from hideous embarrassment to required staple of the season? Let’s explore the rise of the ugly Christmas jumper.
The Ugly Christmas Jumper has its humble beginnings
It all started in Vancouver around the turn of the 21st century. At that time, students began having ugly Christmas sweater parties, where attendants would raid their parents’ or grandparents’ wardrobes, or would trawl through charity shop bins, to find the most visually offensive Christmas jumpers they could.
The fashion for these parties spread quickly across Canada and eventually crossed the border into the US. Once hip retailers realised kids were looking for the ugliest jumpers imaginable, they began to design and produce them. The more whistles and tinsel, the better.
The Ugly Christmas Jumper makes its public debut
Of course, it didn’t take long for the look to be taken out onto the street. Hipsters, who gravitate to all things kitsch and retro, quickly took their ugly jumpers out, even when they weren’t going to ironic festive parties. Instead, ugly jumpers became a part of the standard hip winter wardrobe. And wherever hipsters are, so too are the street style bloggers – who exist only to photograph cool kids looking cool, so other cool kids can take style tips from them.
Once the cool kids in the street style blogs were seen wearing the monstrosities, it was only a matter of time before they crossed the ocean and made their way to the UK.
The Ugly Christmas Jumper makes the leap into the mainstream
So the ugly Christmas jumper has the stamp of approval from fashionistas and hipsters, and it has demonstrated a real market value, as companies dedicated to producing ugly jumpers start growing. Obviously, high street retailers and even fashion superstars began to notice this trend – and design jumpers to satisfy demand.
That is why companies like Urban Outfitters, Topshop, Ralph Lauren and Stella McCartney are all selling ugly winter jumpers. Once those brands give the clothes the stamp of approval of the masses, the trend was just destined to explode.
So here we are now, in an age where 19-year-olds can wear the same outfits as their grannies and grandpas, and instead of being laughed at, they get loads of compliments and asked where they found their amazing pieces.
For an article of clothing like the ugly Christmas jumper, that truly is an amazing rise.
But before you leave thinking this new generation has no taste and no sense of sincerity, Jonathan D Fitzgerald, author of Not Your Mother’s Morals: How the New Sincerity Is Changing Pop Culture for the Better, told the BBC News Magazine that these jumpers – and in fact everything surrounding the hipster subculture – is not about irony. In fact, it is about a search for sincerity and authenticity.
The Christmas jumper in particular, he believes, is about nostalgia and memories of great Christmases gone by. He told the magazine, “Nostalgia is a huge hipster virtue. This isn’t about irony, it’s about kitsch. This is about looking back to something nostalgic – ‘Oh, my mom used to wear sweaters like that.’ It’s only people who are afraid to express the fact that they enjoy it who say it’s ironic.”
And so the Christmas jumper’s rise is really because, deep down, we all just want to have a merry Christmas.
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