Early signs of a douchebag cashmere revival have arrived and, like an early rumble of thunder, portend an incoming storm of expensive, indulgent, insulating, and gloriously gauche knitted clothes.
Take last month’s news that Zadig & Voltaire founder Thierry Gillier was relaunching the OG “King of Cashmere” brand, Lucien Pellat-Finet. These extremely lurid sweaters started at $1,500 (yes, even in the ‘90s) and often came stitched with skulls and marijuana leaves. Think Philip Plein or HUF but intarsia-knitted from ultra-thick four-ply cashmere.
If the powers that be at Zadig think this combo of obnoxious excess and exquisite craft is due for a comeback, it says something about the state of fashion. The release of a seven-piece cashmere collection between Scottish heritage brand Barrie and the art world’s most aggressively ostentatious artist, Damien Hirst (aka the “King of Controversial Art”), confirms it: It's a new dawn, a new day, a new era for enjoyers of really obnoxious sweaters.
To be clear — and to head off your incensed emails — that isn’t a dig. Douchebag cashmere is unapologetic, yes, but it’s also at least aesthetically exciting. The sheer volume of Hirst’s sweater collection, adorned with spots and butterflies (two of his most prevalent motifs) is enough to make the average The Row customer’s brain fizzle and pop. Just as there’s a customer for whisper-quiet Loro Piana level basics that look unremarkable but cost a month’s rent, there’s also a market for this kind of showy luxury item (which, admittedly, is hand-knitted in Scotland).
Hirst's collab lives in the same lane as the bulbous $25,100 Jeff Koons x Hublot watch, where another heritage brand at the top of its game partnered with a mega-commercial artist to make a product only the most unapologetically extra and extravagantly wealthy can pull off (much less afford). Somewhere, someone is plotting to pair the Koons watch with a Hirst sweater on their next trip to Monaco.
While that recent Koons-designed timepiece feels more fun, given that Koons is a Willy Wonka-like figure who feels more like a cartoon than a human man, Hirst brings far more baggage. He’s a stunt queen who famously submerges animal carcasses in formaldehyde and once cast a human skull in platinum and covered it in diamonds to create a “bling skull” that Pellat-Finet would’ve loved. He’s the UK’s richest living artist and a favorite among his tax band.
But you wouldn’t necessarily be able to divine Hirst’s divisive reputation from looking at the £1,985 (around $2,600) roundneck sweater or £2,500 ($3,300) pullover hoodie from this Barrie collection. It's simply stitched into the cashmere.
What’s the point of all that money if you can’t buy really ridiculously high-end sweaters with some Hirst butterflies on it? It's as Beyoncé once said: “If you got it, flaunt it, boy, I know you want it.”
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