The thinking shopper

Life’s better with a Christmas sweater

Alex Bilmes finds jolly but stylish Christmas jumpers

This week Alex Bilmes is channelling his inner Mark Darcy – after a fashion

There is a still from a famous film that all reputable men’s style columns are required by law to publish at this time of year, alongside a Grinchy story decrying the tradition of the novelty Christmas jumper – and I shall be very cross indeed with The Telegraph picture desk if you are not looking at that photo right now.

Since it’s here in front of you, you will know already that the picture is of Colin Firth in a rollneck with a red-nosed reindeer emblazoned across it. As you also know, it’s from Bridget Jones’s Diary, released all of 19 years ago, and Firth is making a spectacle of himself as the priggish lawyer Mark Darcy. His squirming discomfort is, of course, what makes the scene funny, because the novelty Christmas jumper is the great Yuletide leveller: no one, not even that handsome smoothie Colin Firth, can look cool in a sweater that appears to have been knitted by his mad maiden aunt, after one too many passes of the mulled wine tray. And since Christmas is not supposed to be cool – it’s meant to be cosy and comforting – the novelty jumper does double duty by bringing such pompous asses as Mark Darcy back down to earth for a moment.

This column is not here to advocate for the most egregious

Treading the tightrope between jolly and stylish – fortunately there are lots of options out there examples of the phenomenon. But the fact is that after this wretched year we could all use a laugh, and it so happens that we’re in luck. The jolly knitted sweater for men is all of a sudden extremely trendy, with many of the big-name designers producing knitwear in a riot of colours and patterns, and the high street obligingly following suit.

The most eye-catching of the high-fashion festive sweaters is from Gucci: a thick wool and alpaca-blend pullover in rich red, decorated with the face of Mickey Mouse and the repeated Gucci double-g logo (£870). Not to be outdone, Prada has a fetching intarsia wool sweater in a geometric pattern of yellow, red and black (£695). Other Italian luxury labels – Loro Piana, Canali, Brunello Cucinelli – offer colourful sweaters in cashmere, merino wool and more.

More affordably, Gap has a Fair Isle knit in navy, red and green (£49.95), Next does a marlpattern zip-neck (£34) and M&S has gone to town on Christmas prints: if you have a Mark Darcy in your life, I suggest buying him the green crew-neck with a sunglasses-wearing Santa on the belly (below). He won’t look cool. But he will spread some much-needed Christmas cheer. Alex Bilmes is editor-in-chief of Esquire

Colin Firth styling out a Rudolph rollneck in Bridget Jones’s Diary