Our objects have a story: why do we say "sweater"?

The sweater is nowadays a popular item of clothing for both men and women.

The name of this woolen knit, pleasant to wear, has a surprising origin to say the least. In the 19th century, Breton market gardeners used to go to the markets by putting on a garment called “gamesou”, a large woolen knit without buttons that their wives most often made by the fireside in winter. Some of them roamed the Halles market in Paris selling garlic. To get noticed, when approaching customers, they shouted “garlic merchant – garlic merchant” with their faces most often hidden by a turtleneck to protect themselves from the cold in winter. The words, thus pronounced, were often deformed into a “sweater”. Thus, from 1894, by apheresis (phonic modification which implies the loss of one or more parts of a word), the word "sweater" appeared in the vocabulary of Parisians to designate these merchants wrapped up in their big woolen clothes. And by extension, the new word was attributed to their knitting.

In the 1920s, the famous French designer Coco Chanel was the first to take an interest in sweaters. She imagined a knitted collection that quickly caused a stir among the bourgeoisie of the time, especially on the beaches of Deauville. Coco Chanel had thus taken the sweater out of the popular markets to propel it into the chic districts of Paris and major French cities. Later, Sonia Rykiel (1930-2016), nicknamed “the queen of knitting”, made the sweater an iconic item of clothing.

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In the 80s, Princess Diana used to wear sweaters regularly. Long after her death, an American clothing brand had the idea of ​​creating a collection with copies of the most popular sweaters worn by Lady Di. At an undemocratic price of €300 each, but with some success.

Nothing to do, however, with the price reached by the auction of Diana's cult sweater (Fly Virgin Atlantic) that she often wore during her sports sessions. It was sold on July 8, 2019 for the staggering sum of €48,000, it is true for the benefit of a charity.