Open, shut. Buttoned, un-buttoned. A cardigan’s versatility is endless. Plus, you get little pockets, ideal for little things. Although designers have tried to re-introduce, in their cute ironic ways, the cardigan ethos, it is the classic 60s designs that perpetuate. I still wear my girlfriend’s late father’s dark blue Marks & Spencer cardigan (and what a will-reading that was), which must be 30 years old. It is ideal for popping out to the shops in the warmer months; the little pockets come in handy for the shopping list, which may spoil the line of my £400 jeans. It also serves well in colder weather, for slipping over my cashmere suit when going out into the garden to kill slugs.

This classic garment has been maligned for too long as belonging only to old men, or those who ironically ape them. But it is timeless, immune to those who would dictate our knitwear retail decisions. Thos of use who embrace the cardigan do so for what it is, not what we are told it is. It’s place in the story of men’s knitwear is ongoing, and will continue to be so as long as the British Empire rules the waves.