Welcome to Style Spotting, a recurring column highlighting unique clothing and accessories worn by some of the most stylish men we know. This week: Kevin Parker’s Elder Statesman shawl-collar sweater.
On November 26, Amsterdam radio DJ Sagid Carter posted a photo on Instagram with Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker. In the photo, Parker is wearing a white t-shirt, a necklace and a blue-striped cashmere cardigan.
While Parker normally wears t-shirts and jeans, he’s been sporting some decidedly luxe outerwear this year. In the image that accompanied April’s release of “Borderline,” he wore a velvet Gucci bomber jacket. But, the striped cardigan he wore in the November photo with Carter is equally special: it’s made in Los Angeles by a cult-favorite cashmere brand called the Elder Statesman.
The oversized shawl-collar sweater, dubbed the Italy Smoking Jacket, is made from plaited Italian cashmere. The thick, heavy-weight silhouette has an open front sans zipper, belt or buttons — it’s worn like a light jacket. Though the Elder Statesman is known for its wild tie-dye sweaters, the thick tonal stripes on this cardigan are only casually mind-bending, with subtle variations in each color block.
Founded in 2007, the Elder Statesman has built a reputation for producing some of the finest luxury products on the market. It produces high-quality cashmere goods in a small Culver City factory where workers knit on vintage looms. There, sweaters are knit and dyed then air-dried in sun behind the building. “This is what nobody has that we have in California,” says Greg Chait, the brand’s founder. “There’s something that the sun does that you just can’t replicate as part of the finishing process.”
The heavy-weight Italy Smoking Jacket retails for $1,795 and comes in sizes XS to L. So if you’re looking for a sweater that’s both trippy and cozy, head over to Farfetch and pick one up today. The Elder Statesman produces its knits in incredibly limited runs, so act fast — these are bound to sell out quickly.
