A sweet story reminding me why I (and all ladies) love cardigans… It’s after work, we need milk and I am dashing into Target to buy some. As I’m walking past the latest fun and colorful ‘ladies stuff’ they have in, I see another tired looking working gal, like myself, asking the two sales people standing there “Do you have any of those sweaters with buttons up the front? I forget what they are called.” The sales lady replies, “Oh, I know what you mean, like Michelle Obama wears, those sweaters? I don’t know what they’re called but we don’t have any in yet.” I piped in, “It is called a cardigan”. The shopper beamed, “That is it! Cardigan.” All of this made me think, what a weird word and what is its etymology?

From Dictionary.com: “1868, from James Thomas Brudenell (1797-1868), 7th Earl of Cardigan, English general distinguished in the Crimean War, who set the style, in one account supposedly wearing such a jacket while leading the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava (1854).”

The Brits were fashion innovators even way back when!

*Lisa is the Director of the Pelham Art Center in Pelham, New York