LOVE, apparently, gets everywhere.
I have always believed that the success of a house party can be judged by three things: the quality of the wine, the number of people who end up in the kitchen, and whether anyone remembers exactly how the evening finished.
Ours tend to begin respectably enough. Drinks in the drawing room. Someone saying they really mustn’t stay late. The Duchess disappearing upstairs because she has decided, at the last possible moment, that she hates what she is wearing. She slips into her “LOVE” jumper and a red silk skirt and then, inevitably, things loosen.
Our LOVE jumper is one of those pieces that looks perfectly innocent until you put it on. Pure Scottish lambswool. Knitted in England. Beautifully soft. A proper jumper, in other words — with one very simple word across the front.
It has since been worn by NICOLE SCHERZINGER and KYLIE MINOGUE, which rather proves the point that LOVE travels surprisingly well. From an English knitwear house to people whose parties, I suspect, are considerably better organised than mine.
I like it best, though, when it is worn without too much ceremony. Over a shirt. With old trousers. Borrowed by someone who arrived in a dress and has given up pretending not to be cold.
At our house it would probably appear sometime after dinner, when the fire is going, the music has become questionable and the last sensible guest has already left.
The thing about LOVE is that it doesn’t need much explanation. Which is useful, because by midnight nobody here is in any state to offer one.
There is also something pleasingly English about putting a grand sentiment on a very sensible wool jumper.
Nicole wore it. Kylie wore it. And I remain convinced that the best way to wear it is with absolutely no intention of behaving accordingly.
One should never take a house party — or oneself — too seriously.
The jumper, thankfully, already knows that.
The Duke
House of FUND
Eccentric English knitwear. Made in England from pure Scottish lambswool.