Cardigan (sweater)
A cardigan is a type of sweater/jumper with buttons down the front. It was named after James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, a British military commander, during his service in the Crimean War. It is usually machine or hand knitted from wool. Cardigans are available for both sexes but recent fashions have resulted in them being more typically worn by women and fashion-forward men.
Trivia
In an assassination attempt similar to the incident that took the life of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, former Bulgarian state radio editor Vladimir Kostov survived an attack in Paris as he was leaving the subway when a Bulgarian secret agent injected into him a ricin coated platinum pellet hidden in the tip of an umbrella. The agent failed to kill Kostov because the heavy woollen cardigan he was wearing that day kept the pellet from penetrating his skin too deeply.
Notable wearers of cardigans
- Mr. Rogers
- Kurt Cobain
- Robert Dougall (British newsreader)
- Val Doonican
- Li Ao, writer
- Barrie Unsworth (Former Premier of New South Wales, an Australian State)
- Jimmy Carter
- Wallace of Wallace and Gromit fame sports a green cardigan vest
- Travis Leverett
- Robert Meinecke