Men's Cardigans: The Five Shapes to Own, How Each Should Fit, and 12 Ways to Wear Them

The men's cardigans worth owning come in five shapes, and each one has a job. A fine-gauge V-neck buttons under a sport coat. A shawl collar is the layer for dinner at home. A chunky cable is worn as the jacket. A zip cardigan handles the commute and the flight, and a polo-collared cardigan replaces shirt and sweater in an office without ties. If you buy only one, our stylists' pick is the fine V-neck in cashmere or fine merino, in navy or charcoal, long enough to cover the belt.

Below: gauge, fiber and fit; each shape with the pieces to buy now; the knitted jacket that sits between cardigan and blazer; twelve outfits; and care.

How to choose men's cardigans: gauge, fiber and buttons

Gauge: what can go on top

Gauge counts the needles per inch on the knitting machine, so the higher the number, the finer and flatter the knit. Few listings print it, but those that do make useful markers: Zegna knits its 15milmil15 zip cardigan at 18 gauge, Dior lists its Colibri cardigan at 14, and Zegna's shawl-collar cardigan jacket is 8 gauge. Our stylists' working rule, not an industry standard: 14 gauge or finer under a tailored jacket, 8 to 12 gauge worn alone over a shirt, and anything chunkier as the outer layer. Where no gauge is given, in our experience the description gives it away: lightweight, fine and jersey mean a knit that sits under tailoring; chunky, lofted, English rib or any named stitch, such as cable, waffle or basket weave, mean the cardigan is the top layer.

Cashmere, merino, alpaca or cotton: fiber decides warmth and care

Check the composition line before the price. Several brushed and patterned cardigans in this guide are partly synthetic, and the houses present the nylon as structure: Brunello Cucinelli's listing for its Nordic jacquard says the synthetic fiber "contributes to the fabric's stability," and gives the blend as 55 percent alpaca, 25 percent nylon, 14 percent cashmere and 6 percent wool. Dries Van Noten's Mora is 60 percent alpaca, 25 percent merino and 15 percent polyamide, and Moncler's bouclé zip-up is 78 percent virgin wool and 22 percent polyamide, by their listings. None of that is a fault, but it is a different garment from a pure-fiber knit.

Button stance and length

On a V-neck cardigan, the top button sets where the V ends. Under a two-button jacket, our stylists look for a V that closes an inch or two above the jacket's own button point, so the knit shows as a narrow band inside the lapels rather than a second V. Our stylists leave the last button undone, as on a waistcoat, so the fronts part over the lap when you sit; Thom Browne's listing for its striped wool cardigan suggests leaving the top button open too, to show the tricolor trim. Double-breasted cardigans, such as Tom Ford's ribbed shawl-collar version or Brunello Cucinelli's mariner, are cut to be worn closed, like a jacket.

Length is the other check. Our fitting rule: buttoned over a tucked shirt, the hem covers the belt by about an inch, so no strip of shirt shows between knit and waistband. Under a short jacket, it must not drop below the jacket's front edge. Measure a cardigan that fits, shoulder seam to hem, and compare it with any length a listing gives.

Fit over a shirt, and under a coat

Over a shirt, size for the shirt. Our fitting test: try the cardigan over your thickest oxford and check that the buttons close without the knit pulling into creases across the chest. With no tie, open the shirt's top button and let the collar points sit on the knit at the edges of the V; with a tie, button high enough that the tie disappears a few inches below the knot. Under a coat, put both on and reach forward. If the coat pulls across the shoulder blades or the cardigan sleeves bunch at your wrists, the knit is too heavy for that coat, which is why chunky cables belong under a relaxed overcoat or nothing at all; our guide to the best men's winter coats covers which cuts leave room. Sizing varies by house, so read the chart every time: Thom Browne numbers several of its knits, and its Milano cardigan's listing reads size 1 as Small and 4 as X-Large.

The fine-gauge V-neck: the best cardigan for men to buy first

This cardigan earns its price fastest: buttoned under a sport coat on Monday, open over a T-shirt on Saturday. Buy it close, not snug, with the shoulder seam on the shoulder bone. Brunello Cucinelli's cashmere cardigan is the benchmark, in a stockinette stitch with metal buttons. Tom Ford's is all wool, in a shade the house calls walnut. Balmain's eco-cashmere, half virgin wool and half cashmere, has a deep V and five enamel Lion Medallion buttons, so it reads as evening wear. Bottega Veneta's ribbed crewneck closes with leather buttons worked in intrecciato, and Thom Browne's striped wool cardigan is cut semi-fitted, by its listing. Loewe keeps it quiet in a gray V-neck with an embroidered Anagram and a navy wool-blend with a concealed placket, and Valentino's dark navy pairs a shirt collar with lightweight virgin wool and patch pockets. Browse every style in men's cardigans.

Shawl collar cardigans

A shawl collar is a cardigan with a lapel. The rolled collar frames the face the way a jacket does, so a shawl cardigan over a shirt reads as dressed at a holiday table where a crewneck would read as off duty. It also adds bulk at the back of the neck: treat it as the top layer indoors, and wear it under a coat only when the coat collar is wide and soft. Tom Ford's ribbed shawl is equal parts cashmere and cotton in a relaxed fit. Brunello Cucinelli's ribbed version is pure cashmere with metal buttons, and its malfilé cotton English rib uses irregular threads for a slightly rustic surface. Zegna's sage shawl is a waffle-stitch cashmere and wool; its cashmere and mohair (85 and 15 percent) comes in a color the listing calls Dark Foliage and the photograph shows as rust. Brioni's taupe melange is half cashmere and half silk, its ivory is cashmere and wool, and Thom Browne's Browne 65 is chunky wool made in Ireland, with a gray shawl collar on navy.

Chunky cable cardigans: wear it as the jacket

A heavy cable cardigan is outerwear for a mild day and the top layer for a cold one. Try it over the thickest thing you will wear underneath, usually a flannel or oxford shirt, and cross your arms: if the cables flatten across the back, take the next size. Keep the pockets for your hands: in our experience a phone in the pocket drags a heavy front out of line within a season. Brunello Cucinelli knits its burgundy cable V-neck from what it calls cashmere Feather yarn, a light tubular yarn that, by the listing, adds volume, and its taupe lofted cable zips to a stand collar. Tom Ford's brown cardigan is a deep rib in pure cashmere with a bouclé collar, closer to a knitted bomber than a cable. Valentino Garavani raises a basketweave stitch on a navy crewneck in wool with a touch of cashmere, and Bottega Veneta's intrecciato cardigan is not a cable at all but a raised, woven-looking texture with the same visual weight.

Zip cardigans for travel and the commute

A zip cardigan is the most practical knit a man can own and the hardest to make look grown up, and the difference is in the collar and the zip. A ribbed stand collar that stays upright when zipped looks deliberate; a floppy one looks like a track top. A two-way zip lets the hem open when you sit, and a fine zip lies flat where a chunky one ripples the knit beside it. For the office, Zegna's 15milmil15 has the finest gauge stated in this guide, 18, in wool the listing gives as averaging 15 microns. Brunello Cucinelli's lightweight zip is single-ply cashmere and silk, and Fendi's slim navy leaves one contrasting yellow thread hanging at the hem, a detail its listing calls a signature of the Fall/Winter 2026/27 collection. Kiton's camel is plush ribbed cashmere with the house's red dot on the zip pull, Tom Ford's black merino has leather elbow patches, Givenchy's dark havana is wool and cashmere with the curved Couture Seam, and Moncler's black zip-up sets a bouclé front against smoother sleeves.

Polo-collar and shirt-collar cardigans

A collared cardigan is a shirt and a sweater in one, which makes it the cleanest answer to a business-casual office: button it over a fine T-shirt or a thin crewneck and no shirt collar is needed. The collar is the test. A knitted collar has no stiffening, so in our experience it needs a dense or ribbed knit to keep its points down and its stand up after a day under a jacket; a thin one curls by lunchtime. Burberry's Channing is fine-knit wool with buffalo horn buttons and the house check hidden on the placket. Versace makes a silk and cotton polo cardigan with Greca lace stitching and Medusa buttons, and a gray virgin wool with a button-down collar. Thom Browne's polo cardigan is wool fleece with the four-bar stripe on the sleeve, Givenchy's black wool has a leather collar, and Dolce & Gabbana's black virgin wool has a wide collar and an embroidered crest. Brunello Cucinelli's double-breasted cashmere mariner wears like a peacoat, and Dries Van Noten's brushed teal is an alpaca blend with a pointed collar.

The cardigan jacket: when a knit replaces the blazer

Between the cardigan and the sport coat sit knitted jackets with one purpose: the authority of a jacket in something you can sit in for eight hours. Zegna's light green cardigan jacket is an 8-gauge basket stitch in cashmere and wool with a ribbed shawl collar and low patch pockets. Tom Ford's double-breasted ribbed cardigan has a shawl collar, Brunello Cucinelli's rib-knit cashmere fastens double-breasted under a stand collar, and Kiton's Punto jacket is pure cashmere with a band collar and three patch pockets. Then the knitted blazers: Tom Ford's is densely knitted wool, unlined, with notch lapels, by its listing; Zegna's High Performance jersey is wool and cotton, unlined, and comes with its own travel case; and Valentino Garavani's cotton jersey jacket has contrast piping along the shawl lapels.

Where they work, in our stylists' view: anywhere a navy blazer without a tie would be right, and nowhere a suit is required. A knit jacket does not hold a sharp line at the shoulder, so wear it with flannel, cords or dark wool trousers rather than worsted suit trousers, which make the knit look underdressed. Our men's work outfits guide covers each dress code, and more knitted tailoring sits in men's blazers.

Alpaca, mohair and bouclé cardigans

Brushed yarns are the weekend cardigans. The halo traps air, so in our experience they feel warmer than a smooth knit of the same weight, and the fuzzy surface hides creases from a day in the car. Two practical notes from our stylists: a metal watch bracelet pulls loops out of a brushed cuff, so a leather strap is kinder, and a crossbody bag flattens the halo where the strap sits. Dries Van Noten has the strongest edit: the Mora in olive, a boxy cropped Mora in black for high-rise trousers, and the Mounia, an orange alpaca mélange V-neck. Thom Browne's Donegal cardigan is 70 percent wool and 30 percent mohair, made in the UK, with a dachshund knitted into the back. Moncler's taupe bouclé zip-up is a three-color mouliné rib, and Gabriela Hearst's August is closer to a jacket: a zip-front bouclé of cashmere, recycled cashmere, alpaca, wool and silk, by its listing.

Cotton and silk cardigans for heated rooms and winter sun

In our experience a wool cardigan is too warm for an office kept at 74°F, on a long flight or at a December lunch in Palm Beach, and cotton or cotton-silk is the fix: it does not felt, and silk adds drape and a low sheen. Tom Ford's cotton and silk cardigan buttons to a ribbed mock neck, a very clean shape under a jacket. Dior's Colibri is 14-gauge cotton with a hummingbird embroidered on the front and horn buttons, and Loro Piana's Meina mixes ivory and gold cotton into a mélange with dropped shoulders. Zegna's ribbed cotton has leather trim, Thom Browne has a navy Milano-stitch cotton V-neck and an ivory cotton and linen, both with the four-bar stripe on the sleeve, and Brunello Cucinelli's navy cotton has a shawl collar. Givenchy's black cotton cardigan is lined in cupro, so it slides on over a shirt without dragging.

Fair Isle and jacquard cardigans for the holidays and after

The dinners start with Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, and run through Hanukkah, from sundown on Friday, December 4, to nightfall on Saturday, December 12, according to Hebcal, to Christmas and New Year's Eve. Choose a patterned cardigan by what goes over it. Under a jacket only the strip inside the lapels shows, so a side-panel pattern vanishes while an embroidered placket stays in view; worn as the top layer, an all-over Fair Isle is the whole outfit, so our stylists button it and keep everything else plain. A Fair Isle carries the yarn not in use across the inside in short strands, which in our experience makes it warmer and less stretchy than a plain knit: try it over the shirt you will wear. Tonal patterns last into February; the multicolored ones are the December pleasure.

Dries Van Noten's Mesa is the all-over Fair Isle, ivory and black, in wool and cotton, and its striped rib zip-up runs jacquard panels down the front. Brunello Cucinelli bands its Nordic jacquard shawl in dusky rose and oatmeal. Versace knits the Greca into the side panels of a charcoal V-neck and embroiders a Medusa on an argyle-knit black zip-up. Alexander McQueen's black cardigan has ivory flowers down the placket, the one for a cocktail party, and Moncler's charcoal zip-up carries a large rhombus that, its listing says, draws on the house's alpine roots; it is 26 percent polyester. For the dinners themselves, see our men's Christmas outfits.

How to wear a cardigan: 12 outfits for men

These are combinations our stylists use. Two color pairings are deliberately missing: Vêtir's stylists keep brown, camel and tan away from navy and blue denim, and away from black, so the brown knits below go with gray, cream, ecru and olive instead.

At the office

1. A navy fine-gauge V-neck cardigan, buttoned, over a white poplin shirt and a navy grenadine tie, with mid-gray flannel trousers and black penny loafers.
2. A charcoal ribbed crewneck cardigan over a pale blue oxford shirt, collar open, with navy wool trousers and black suede loafers.
3. A black polo-collar cardigan buttoned over a white crewneck T-shirt, charcoal trousers and black leather derbies: the shirt and sweater in one piece.
4. A navy jersey blazer over a fine gray merino crewneck, mid-gray flannel trousers and black monk straps, for a day of meetings without a tie.

At the weekend

5. A burgundy cable cardigan over a cream rollneck, ecru jeans and dark brown suede boots.
6. A camel shawl cardigan over a white T-shirt, olive corduroys and dark brown suede chukkas.
7. A navy zip cardigan over a gray T-shirt, dark indigo jeans and white leather sneakers, for the airport.
8. A teal alpaca cardigan over an ecru oxford shirt, black jeans and black Chelsea boots.

At a holiday dinner

9. An ivory cashmere-cotton shawl cardigan over a black rollneck, black wool trousers and black velvet slippers.
10. A dusky rose and oatmeal Nordic jacquard cardigan over a cream turtleneck, mid-gray flannel trousers and dark brown suede loafers, for Thanksgiving.
11. A navy shawl cardigan with a gray collar over a white oxford shirt, charcoal trousers and black loafers, for a Hanukkah dinner.
12. A sage waffle-stitch shawl cardigan over a cream shirt, chocolate corduroy trousers and dark brown suede loafers.

For more around the knit, see our men's weekend outfits. If you already own the cardigan, tell our AI stylist which one and where you are wearing it, and it will build the shirt, trousers and shoes around it.

What to buy once, and what is a one-season pleasure

Buy once: a fine V-neck in navy, charcoal or brown, a shawl collar in ivory, oatmeal, camel or gray, and a navy or black zip cardigan with a stand collar. A heavy cable lasts too, but somewhere warm you will wear it less than you expect. Logo intarsia, embroidered evening cardigans and bright brushed colors are one- or two-season pleasures: buy them for the fun, and after the basics.

Caring for a cardigan: pilling, stretching and storage

In our experience a cardigan gives out at its buttonholes and elbows long before the yarn wears thin. The Woolmark Company's pilling guide puts pilling down to rubbing during wear and names the elbows, armpits, sleeves, belly and sides as the usual places. A few pills, it says, can be removed by hand, routinely after drying or just before ironing; it also suggests a very gentle comb or a battery-operated de-piller. Our stylists add three cardigan habits: empty the pockets every evening, because keys and a phone stretch a patch pocket for good; air it over a chair back rather than on a hook by the collar; and steam out creases instead of pressing, which flattens a rib. The label outranks all of this: in this guide alone, Brunello Cucinelli's cashmere is listed as hand wash, Zegna's cardigan jacket as do not wash, and Thom Browne's Donegal as dry clean. For crewnecks and rollnecks to wear underneath, browse men's sweaters.

One cardigan is famous for never having been washed: the green one Kurt Cobain wore for Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in 1993, which sold for $334,000 at Julien's Auctions in October 2019, a record for a sweater at auction by the auction house's account, CNN reported. Yours will be worth more to you clean.

How we chose these cardigans

• The job first. We grouped every piece by what it can sit under or replace, judged from the stated gauge where a listing gives one and from the rib in the photograph where it does not.
• Composition read in full. Where a blend leans on nylon, polyamide or polyester, we say so, and nothing went into a cashmere or cotton edit that the label did not support.
• Photographs over names. When a listing's color disagreed with its picture, as with Zegna's Dark Foliage or Brunello Cucinelli's "Red" jacquard, we describe the color the photograph shows.
• Spread. Sixty-six pieces from twenty-two houses, nothing pre-owned, and no more than three from one house in any edit.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best cardigan for a man to buy first?

In our stylists' view, a fine-gauge V-neck in cashmere or merino, in navy or charcoal, long enough to cover the belt. It works buttoned under a sport coat, open over a T-shirt and with a tie. A mid-brown suits a man whose trousers run to gray, cream and olive; our stylists keep brown away from navy, denim and black.

Can you wear a cardigan instead of a blazer?

Yes, in business-casual offices and at dinners without a dress code, if the cardigan has structure: a shawl collar, a double-breasted front or a knitted jacket with lapels, worn with flannel or dark wool trousers. Where a suit is required, wear the suit.

How should a men's cardigan fit?

The shoulder seam sits on the shoulder bone, the sleeves end at the wrist, and buttoned over your usual shirt the fronts lie flat without pulling across the chest. Our stylists like the hem to cover the belt by about an inch.

Should you button a cardigan?

Our stylists button it under a jacket, where loose fronts bunch at the lapels, and wear it open over a T-shirt or on its own, where it hangs like a soft jacket; either way the last button stays undone. Double-breasted cardigans are made to be worn closed.

Is a shawl collar cardigan formal?

It is the dressiest cardigan shape, because the collar works like a lapel. Over a shirt or a fine rollneck it suits a holiday dinner or a smart-casual party; it is not a substitute for a dinner jacket at black tie.

Keep reading

• The best cashmere sweaters for men
• How to choose and wear a men's turtleneck
• Men's fall outfits and how to layer them
• The best men's winter coats to wear over a cardigan
• The best cardigans for women