The cardigan I bought because I was tired of being the beige one

On the hooded knit that zips up the front, is lined in something soft, and — yes — comes in thirty different patterns, so nobody else at the market has yours.

By Carol Hadley · Fairhope, AlabamaPosted September 2026 · 5 min read

I am 65 years old, and somewhere along the way I became the beige one. Not by choice, exactly. It happens a colour at a time, over about fifteen years, until you open the wardrobe one morning and the whole thing is oatmeal and you cannot remember deciding that.

The trouble was that everything with colour in it seemed to be made for somebody else. Thin, scratchy, cut for a twenty-five-year-old, and printed with something that looked cheerful from six feet away and cheap from two.

Then I saw a woman at the farmers' market in what looked like a painting with a zip up the front. She was my age. She looked like the most interesting person there.

We are a small family shop here in Fairhope, Alabama, running since 1984. These are the handful of things we refused to compromise on.

1.Thirty patterns, and no two the same

We did not make one cardigan in ten colours. We made thirty cardigans, each with its own design — mosaics of colour blocks, geometric triangles, folk-art panels, warm russets and bright jewel tones. You pick the one that is yours. The chances of running into it on somebody else at the same market are close to nothing, and at our age that matters more than we like to admit.

2.A zip, not a row of fiddly buttons

We put a proper metal zip up the front with a pull big enough to take hold of. One movement and you are closed; one movement and you are open. No buttons to line up with cold fingers in a car park, nothing to pull over your head, nothing done to your hair. If your hands are not what they were, you will notice this within a day.

3.A hood lined with something soft

We lined the hood in a soft brushed grey that sits against the neck instead of scratching it, and made it roomy enough to go up over your hair without flattening it. When the wind comes off the bay you put it up and carry on. It is the reason I stopped carrying a scarf in October.

4.Knitted colour, not printed colour

This is the part that took us longest. The colour is knitted into the fabric rather than stamped on top of it, so up close you can see the stitches change where one block meets the next. That is why it reads as a piece of work rather than a pattern on a sheet — and it is why it will not crack or fade after six washes the way printed ones do.

5.Roomy through the body and the arms

We cut them easy. Wide through the arm so nothing grips at the top, relaxed through the middle so nothing sits on it, and long enough in the sleeve to reach the wrist. It goes over a tee, over a shirt, over a blouse you were already wearing — you do not have to plan an outfit around it.

6.It fits the body you have, S to 4XL

We size them true, from S to 4XL, and cut every size with the same easy shape — not one pattern stretched to fit a chart. Take your usual size, or go one up if you like more room over a jumper. And if it is not right when it arrives, send it back within thirty days for a full refund, no questions.

The usual bright cardigan vs. these

Why we're clearing them now

We priced them at $200.00 when they launched. But for America's 250th Anniversary, we wanted to give something back to the women who keep our doors open — so every cardigan is going out at a fraction of that.

Every order leaves Fairhope folded in a kraft paper mailer with a handwritten note from one of us tucked on top. It is a small thing. We have found the small things are the ones people remember.

I do not usually write things like this. But I have not been the beige one since the day mine arrived, and the difference that has made to how I feel walking into a room is out of all proportion to what it cost. It felt like getting a piece of myself back.

If that sounds like you, I hope you find yours before they clear.

— Carol Hadley · Fairhope, AL

The Hadley Family is a small family-run shop. Prices and availability shown are current at the time of writing.