# What's with zip-up cardigans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111 "2005-11-08T21:30:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111/1 "2005-11-08T21:30:31Z")
Hi, my name is twickster and I’m a sweater junkie. (“Hi, twicks!”) Seriously – I have one entire closet, plus a foot-of-the-bed-chest, plus a few other random drawers filled with sweaters. I looooooove sweaters. The last few years, “they” have been selling a lot of zip-up cardigans. What’s with them? I think they’re geeky in the extreme and haven’t bought a single one. What advantage do they have over traditional button-up cardigans? ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111/2 "2005-11-08T21:36:15Z")
Oh dear. I love mine. I wear it like a sweatshirt. But I’m not a sweater person at all; it’s the only sweater I actually wear. So color me geeked. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111/3 "2005-11-08T21:45:33Z")
Aside from the fact that they’re practical as hell (cold-cold? zip it up. sorta cold? zip it down), I thought the advantage to them in recent years _is_ that they’re geeky in the extreme. Isn’t geeky cool now? I haven’t read the memo. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111/4 "2005-11-08T22:51:55Z")
i like them because you can’t find them here in the States, or at least I thought you couldn’t…for a guy. I bought mine in London when I was there in June. It was cold as hell, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and AA left my luggage in NY. I had to buy something so I bought one of those. It’s very warm. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111/5 "2005-11-09T04:10:18Z")
I don’t see the advantage of zippers over buttons for either warmth or calibration thereof – YMOV. On geekiness – I failed to think through the possibility that that would be a “plus.” :smack: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111/6 "2005-11-09T04:27:53Z")
All of the sweaters I’ve been making have been zippered cardigans. Practical and stylishly geeky. Sleeker front that buttons. Less math involved for building in buttonholes as you go. Nothing sucks more than having the top of the sweater take longer to reduce inward to the neck than you thought it would, leaving you with buttonhole intervals of 4 inches, 4 inches, 4 inches, 4 inches, 4 inches . . . and 6 inches. Re. Tar. Ded. Zipper? No prob. THough it sucks they only come in even lengths. Need a 19" zipper? No can do. Gotta scrunch it down to 18" or stretch it to 20. Suckalicious. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-zip-up-cardigans/330111/7 "2005-11-09T05:12:47Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I don’t see the advantage of zippers over buttons for either warmth or calibration thereof – YMOV. Huh? Buttons _warmer_ than a zipper? Except in the possible case of a boudle breasted jacket, zippers are far superior. Buttons have GAPS between them, a zipper is continuos. Also, a zipper is a lot easier and quicker to use than a set of buttons. at least for me, it is. Not that I own a cardigan, or ever would, just providing my opinion.