Formal British-Made Women's Cardigans — Voted by the Community

The cardigan takes its name from James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, the British Army officer who led the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in 1854, during the Crimean War. The garment was modelled on the knitted wool waistcoat worn by British officers in that war. It began as menswear, and Coco Chanel later helped make it a staple for women with her jersey cardigan suits of the 1910s and 1920s. Knitting in Britain is much older than the cardigan. Hand knitting was well established before machines arrived, and the stocking frame, credited to William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589, began the mechanisation of the craft. Framework knitting later became a major industry in Nottingham and Leicester, and in the 1750s Jedediah Strutt's Derby rib attachment allowed ribbed fabric to be knitted by machine. British-made cardigans draw on this long knitting tradition, using natural fibres such as wool and established methods suited to a garment made for layering.