🟧 Autumn sweaters

Our fashion recs for fall.

We’re updating our closets and shoe racks for the new season. Aren’t you going to have a tasteboy fall? NG = Nate Gallant, KC = Kyle Chayka.

Wild sweaters: My obsession with vintage Missoni knitwear has led me down some strange Etsy rabbitholes, which I think are generally worthwhile, as the brand has done little besides doubling their price tag over the intervening 30 years since most of these colorful striped sweaters were originally made. This isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re looking for something a little different, say, in Scottish wool, check out these Howlin’ sweaters on the Belgian fashion aggregator, morrison.be. They are beautiful, the colorways are slightly unexpected, the knits have a classic preppy texture but the slightly boxy fits do indeed appear fairly “trend-proof”, as they claim on their site, which is an absolute necessity given the price tag. — NG

---

Embrace aggressive pants: In the same vein, pant fits, especially for men, are so retrograde that there is truly no need to buy anything new. There are so many vaguely loose fitting, high-waisted pairs of slacks or black cargo-pants from the 90’s floating around at every price point, from Goodwill to The Real Real, that buying even very nice A+F or say the techie Paige versions feel more than a bit redundant. Especially when it comes to a fall staple, corduroy, there are an embarrassment of options: try a nice foresty green or espresso pair, or go full ‘70s and finally buy a pair of terrifyingly orange cords! Somehow, they look equally good and bad with everything, so let this be your fall of power-clashing. — NG

---

Own at least one hoodie: Hoodies are cringe but useful. Since late this summer I’ve been traveling a lot, and my go-to plane gear is an American Giant hoodie. Mine is a decade old at this point but its thick, dense material is still holding up, plenty warm for all weather, and the hood will keep you dry for shorter walks. Expensive at $138 but imo totally worth it. — KC

---

Get outside: A theme of my autumn shopping is aspirational exercise: I’m buying gear to inspire me to persist through the not-ideal weather. This Nike trail running jacket keeps me warm enough to start running but is also cool enough once I get moving. On deep sale for $82! Plus orange is the new neutral. — KC

---

Hender Scheme boots

Swap out your Blundstones: The omnipresence of Blundstones the last few years and the (arguably) pretty fun deconstruction of the leather boot somewhere in between Docs, Birkenstocks, and gladiator sandals have left the unadorned Chelsea boot feeling like it could use an upgrade. It doesn’t really matter, and maybe, as with Birkenstocks, you should just buy a pair of Doc Martens and call it a day, but there are a few options that to me at least seem to have incorporated some of the more fun and creative elements of the newer, hyper-trendy iterations and seem less of an Instagram follow of 2014 Seattle or fake cowboy boot. At the highest end, I find the Officine Creative leather patterns to look pretty unique, especially given their sleeker shape, and am very intrigued by the Japanese leatherworks brand Hender Scheme’s trendier front-zip boots. Do not buy the Common Projects ones. I have no clue how they treat their leather but it is so uncomfortable that even after several years of wear the price tag will remain an insult to you until you finally manage to resell them. Slightly back down to earth, for the money, the Polo Ralph Lauren or the Massimo Dutti versions, at least in black, shade towards a very classic shape while also widening the ankle ever-so-slightly towards the current gorp-core, Doc-Marten moment. — NG

---

Long socks: In DC we’re stuck between no-show sock season and waterproof boots with tube socks. In preparation for actual winter I got these Muji “excess yarn” socks, which are a steal at $12.90 for 3 pairs. They’re made from “surplus hosiery,” so they are both sustainable and in a pleasingly ambiguous range of colors; you could probably wear them mismatched. They’re thicker than Uniqlo standard but not hiking-sock thick, threading the needle between humidity and chill. — KC  

---

Hats for the weather: Speaking of things from my youth that are back in style, floppy baseball caps seem to have had a longer life back in the mainstream than I expected. What I also didn’t expect was to really like a wax canvas version from the very gear-bro website Huckberry. I bought a different one from a company they used to stock which doesn’t seem to exist anymore, but it was pretty nice for walking the dog in the rain and general fall vibes, and this version seems to capture the possibility for a basic staple of waxed canvas, which is normally comes to us as an excessively expensive coat or fashion-workwear pants. — NG

---

You know you want it: For those looking to live their British-estate-fall-fantasies in a Barbour waxed canvas coat, and do not want to pay over $400, the brand does have outlets around the country, which unlike a lot of high-end brands, tend to offer fairly steep discounts. — NG

---

Best of One Thing

If you’re a new subscriber, look back through the archives for our greatest hits. We send out short newsletters on taste, authenticity, and recommendation culture every Tuesday and Thursday (plus some extras).

• Is Brat a good album? A text-message conversation about the indisputable musical meme of the summer.

• Aggregation theory Big media companies and tiny Substacks alike are competing to offer authoritative viewpoints.

• Abercrombie and Fitch is back The high school-era brand is embracing trendiness in menswear retail.

• The disappearing Insta grid Why we don’t like posting to Instagram’s main feed anymore.

• Why did we stop saying “hipster”? On the end of 2000s-era individuality on the internet.