On 24th July 2020, Singer-Songwriter Taylor Swift released her newest album: Folklore. While the music takes her back to her acoustic and natural routes, there was something else that truly sparked the interests of many across Ireland and beyond.
In her album art she was wearing a traditional cream Aran sweater. She even remarked how the sweater brought back memories of a person she lost simply because of a smell still borne in the fabric.
While she is not the first celebrity in Hollywood to adorn the classic and durable woollen garment – such as Chris Evans in the 2019 film, Knives Out – it appears to have had the biggest impact among fans across the world. In this album, Swift stepped back into a reminiscent past of fairy-tale, myths and legends with a grainy forest to depict her album.
The artist wrote and recorded the entirety of her eighth album while in isolation at the start of 2020. Which, she says, allowed her to pour her “whims, dreams, fears and musings” into it.
Swift’s album has one song topping the charts in Spotify at the time of writing this: Cardigan. It directly reflects her album art with the Aran sweater as she sings about feeling like garment thrown away but brought back as a favourite classic piece:
And when I felt like I was an old cardigan,
Under someone’s bed,
You put me on and said I was your favourite
Much like the Irish sweaters, themselves; it is a classical piece, often overlooked with modern fashions but always making a come-back. Of course, the fisherman’s sweater with always be a staple within the authentic Irish clans on the three Aran islands. But, to see a submerge in the culture’s traditional Irish sweaters brings great pride to all of Ireland and our authentic weavers.
To get your hand on Taylor Swift’s memory-holden Irish sweater, check out this range of Aran sweaters. Keeping in touch with the classic hand-made woollen crew-neck styles of the fisherman’s sweater, the piece of Irish history will bring its own memories and comfort to each and every wearer.
When Taylor Swift endorses something in the fashion world we all know it must be a winner, the aran sweater can be styled with so many accessories, so there is sure to be much demand for the aran sweater this fall and winter to keep us warm in those colder months!