Trend watch: the half-zip sweater

Sweater weather klaxon! At the time of writing, coat weather did not look to be approaching with any immediate urgency. Instead, it’s time to focus on knitwear to bridge the gap between seasons. Half-zip knits have had a steady climb in popularity in the last year. This athleisure staple was seen at Loewe SS24 (below) and a few seasons ago on the runways at JW Anderson and Alaïa, and spotted as a recurring sweater at Isabel Marant. It has the right amount of detail to stand apart from a plain sweater. And can, surprisingly, be styled in many different ways and layered to continue wearing when we do hit single-digit weather.

A model wears a navy knitted double half zip jumper over a white shirt at Loewe SS24

Choose from cropped and fitted to oversized and snuggly, perfectly pair with boyfriend jeans. The high-street has followed suit with half-zip sweaters coming in every shade of neutral through to pastel shades and bold red as well as striped versions. Layer a rollneck underneath, style with leather or faux-leather trousers for an interesting clash of textures. A brilliant companion for these knits is a white shirt worn with a protruding hem.

See Isabel Marant for more styling tips, her AW23 version tucked into jeans, exudes French nonchalance (main image). In her collection for Uniqlo, ex Givenchy creative director and designer of Meghan Markle’s wedding dress, Claire Waight Keller offers a grey version (£39.90) styled under a blue corduroy suit and an orange take paired with a pleated midi skirt and fl at boots. The half-zip style also comes in several Breton stripe combinations, &Other Stories’ navy and cream (£95) looks great with a well-cut cream trouser now and with shorts on a more chilly summer’s day next year.