Every time I post about Spring Summer 09 collections, I shiver a bit. I know I should be looking forward to the season ahead and what trends and fashions it will bring but at the moment all I want to do is find a lovely warm jumper to snuggle up in. I love winter, but keeping warm is all I can really think about when the weather turns cold. For me a lovely soft jumper is the clothing equivalent of a lovely warming comfort food like shepherds pie or roast beef.

It is a good thing that chunky knits are in this year as there is plenty of choice from jumpers to cardigans. But my absolute favourite knitwear for all weathers is a cashmere jumper. Cashmere is just about the softest knitwear there is and magically when it is cold keeps you warm and when it is hot it keeps you cool. Great for those times when you come in from the freezing cold and the central heating is just too much.

This long belted cashmere cardigan is perfect for wrapping yourself up in. It is great for keeping warm for around the house but also looks amazingly stylish for going out. It is made from the finest amazingly warm and soft cashmere.

Since the whole credit crunch, recession thing started, I have read countless articles extolling the virtues of buying good quality basic clothes over lots of cheap high fashion, through away clothes. For the most part, I absolutely agree but there are times when only a bit of cheap high fashion will suffice.If you do decide to take the quality over quantity stance, which is probably also more environmentally friendly and ethical than the cheap high fashion option, you will need to ensure that you take really good care of your fashion investments, so that you get plenty of wear and your moneys worth out of them. If you really do get fed up with them, you can sell them second hand.I once invested a very gorgeous, soft and warm cashmere jumper which I loved wearing in the winter. I wore it constantly for 3 winters in a row. The forth winter, I got it out of my wardrobe to wear on a particularly cold day and to my horror, found a  moth hole the size of a 50p right in the front of it. I was devastated and couldn’t understand why despite cedar wood balls a moth had managed to nibble it. My advice to you, if you do choose to invest in cashmere is to go completely overboard with the cedar wood.

It is also very important to store you investment properly.  Choose nice hangers to hang items and if folding and storing use acid free tissue paper. Keep your investment spotlessly clean. If it is dry clean only get it regularly cleaned pointing out any stains/ marks to the dry cleaner in advance. If you do need to remove stains, there are some great tips on Fabric Link

I would definitely invest in this lovely boat neck cashmere jumper, but I would look after it better this time.

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picture from www.simoneshailes.com

If this summer is anything to go by we could well be in for a cold autumn. In fact I think autumn has started already. Yesterday, the hubby even put the heating on because it was so cold. This prompted me to think about what I would be needing in the way of knitwear this autumn/ winter to keep me really toasty warm. When it comes to knitwear for Autumn Winter 08, I just couldn’t post without mentioning Simone Shailes.

Simone shot into the limelight following her Autumn Winter 08 knitwear graduation collection. Simone graduated form Central St Martins College in February 2008 with a distiction for her MA in Fashion (knitwear). Whilst completing her MA she 2007 Chloé Scholarship and more recently the L’Oreal Professionnel Fashion Design award at the London Fashion Week show. Simones knits are huge and chunky with lots of loped pieces of knit. The texture that she has managed to create with the knits are both interesting and stylish.

 Unfortunately, My budget won’t stretch to one of Simone’s lovely cardis but I can afford this lovely warm maxi cardi.