As temperatures cool, I’ve been on a warm sweater search. Even though I identified sweaters early in the year as an area where my wardrobe was lacking, I’ve only added one cotton sweater to my collection recently. Sweater shopping is turning out to be harder than buying pants!

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Today I’m doing a fitting room review of a few pullover sweaters that I’ve tried on recently at Amour Vert, Cuyana, and Everlane. As always, my reviews are from a petite perspective. I’m 5′ 4″, a dress size 4, and tend to wear an XS or S. In all these try-ons, I am wearing XS.

Amour Vert Daria Sweater

Amour Vert’s sweaters, like the rest of its clothes, come with details and embellishments that are anything but basic. There are flourishes in the texture, patterns, and cuts. I mean, just look at this sweater with a dramatic twist V-back. Just as I wrote about how the prints at Amour Vert don’t generally fit my style, I feel the same way about its sweaters. Anyhow, this is all to say that I only tried on one sweater there.

The Daria Sweater is made from ethically sourced merino wool and features a chevron pattern with pom pom detailing. (It’s similar to last year’s Perryn Sweater, which featured pom poms in horizontal lines.) Most of Amour Vert’s sweaters only come in a few colors, but the Daria comes in five: ivory, pinot, forest green, mustard, and black with tan. Here’s a 5′ 10″ model wearing a size S in mustard.

And here’s me in an XS in pinot. Apologies for this blurry photo.The Amour Vert fitting room doesn’t have good lighting and I have an old phone with a now outdated camera.

I felt the fit was pretty good for a petite. No complaints about the body length. The knit is medium weight and looked well-made in person. And the wool was only the slightest bit scratchy on me — less so than cashmere.

It’s a very cute sweater! But am I a pom pom person? I’m not sure.

BTW, right now all of Amour Vert’s sweaters are 25% off with the code SWEATERSEASON through tomorrow, 12/8.

Cuyana Recycled Cashmere Crewneck

As you might know from my last sweater review, part of my problem with sweater shopping is that cashmere feels too prickly on my sensitive skin. I know from experience that Everlane cashmere irritates me. But what about other ethical brands, like Cuyana? Cuyana doesn’t make that many sweater styles. They tend to have a minimalist, wardrobe basics look like this:

Cuyana says that this sweater is made from a recycled cashmere blend using no extra dyes. (I’m not sure what “extra” means in this case.) I forgot to look at the tag to see what else was in the fiber content — and the website doesn’t say! Probably some wool? Whatever it was, I found the blend scratchy. The color choices, though a bit boring, covers the basics nicely: beige (as worn by the model), black, and charcoal gray.

The website also doesn’t say how tall the model is or what size she’s wearing but here’s 5′ 4″ me in an XS. Sorry about yet another blurry photo. Again, the lighting situation wasn’t great and natural light was lacking because it was after 5 pm and the sun had already set.

The fit is supposed to be relaxed, but this seems oversized in an unflattering way on me — and this is already the smallest size. I also didn’t love the details of this sweater, like the side slits. Also, there’s a tiny gold button on the back, right under where the tag is located. (You can see this in the item listing) Why?! It’s so weird and unnecessary.

Everlane Link-Stitch Crewneck Sweater

Everlane fits my personal style best (it seems a bit more modern), so I saved it for last in this review because I tried on the most sweaters there.

The Link-Stitch Crewneck Sweater is all cotton in a midweight knit. While I wouldn’t call it thick, it’s thicker and chunkier than Everlane’s other cotton sweaters. This 5′ 10″ model is wearing a size S.

Here I am trying the XS in rust. I could have sized up to S for a slouchier look.

Amazingly the sleeve length worked on me. (Sweater sleeves are almost always too long for me.) And the body length also worked for a petite. However, I didn’t love the dropped seam shoulder. For some reason, the seam on the arm kind of protruded on me.

The fabric seems high quality, and the whole sweater has a bit of heft to it. It seems like a great sweater for transition weather. The color offerings are great: bone white, brass (as worn by the model) and the rust red I tried on. There’s also a v-neck version of this sweater too (in a white and blue). But it looks longer compared to the crew neck.

Everlane Teddy Crew Neck Sweater

Everlane touts its Teddy Crew Neck Sweater as “our coziest sweater ever.” (Hmmm, this sweater is a “crew neck” but the link-stitch one is a “crewneck.” Everlane, do you need a copy editor?) There’s also a v-neck version of this sweater. Both are petite friendly with a cropped length. It comes in six colors: heather gray, black, buttermilk, cider, lagoon blue, and heathered coral. Here’s a 5′ 7″ model wearing S in blue lagoon. This color and texture reminds me a bit of Cookie Monster.

Here I’m wearing XS in cider. (Let us also pause here for a moment to acknowledge that Everlane has the best fitting room lighting! Not only are there skylights in their San Francisco location’s fitting rooms to let in natural light, but these photos were taken in the evening after the sun had set on a dreary rainy day.)

I liked the fit of the sweater. It was especially cute tucked in. And the sleeves while a tad long, were manageable.

The material was thick and indeed cozy. And it didn’t itch me! The fiber content is 65% merino wool and 35% polyamide. Oh no, not polyamide. That’s another name for nylon aka plastic. Since I’m trying not to buy new clothes with plastic, that was a pass for me. Also, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like the teddy bear-like texture over time.

This sweater and the link-stitch one above are both made in a factory in Fujian province, China.

Everlane ReCashmere Vintage Crew

Everlane introduced its ReCashmere sweaters this year, made from “premium Italian yarn that’s been recycled for 50% less impact.” Compared to its nonrecycled cashmere, the carbon footprint is half. The cashmere is collected through recycling programs by a partner mill in Prato, Italy and the sweaters are made in China.

However, the fiber content of ReCashmere is not all cashmere. It comprises of 60% recycled cashmere and 40% non-mulesed, extra-fine merino wool. I didn’t know what non-mulesed wool meant and looked it up. According to Wikipedia, “mulesing is the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep to prevent the parasitic infection flystrike (myiasis).” As you can imagine, this is controversial. PETA opposes mulesing as cruel and painful. (Here’s a news story from 2017 if you want to learn more about the wool industry and attempts to phase out this practice.)

Here’s a 5″ 4″ model wearing a S in the ReCashmere Vintage Crew.

I’m wearing the XS in heathered clay. This sweater comes in a whole bunch of color options — 10! (I would not blame you for being distracted by the marks in the mirror. Who left their fingers prints on the mirror? Come on!)

The cropped body length works well for a petite. The sleeves are too long, but the cuffs are extra long, so you can easily fold them back and it seems that they would stay in place. While this sweater still bothered my sensitive skin a little, it didn’t prickle me me as much as the 100% cashmere sweaters.

Everlane ReCashmere Stroopwafel Crew

Here’s another ReCashmere sweater with the same fiber mix and a fun waffle-knit texture. This 5′ 7″ model is wearing an XS.

And here’s me, also wearing an XS.

This has a looser fit than the the other sweaters in the body and arms. I like that the crew neck is wider than on the other sweaters. The ribbing at the hem and cuffs are extra long.

I love the waffel-knit texture. This sweater comes in four colors: bone, heathered sand (what the model is wearing, already sold out in many sizes), heathered ink (what I’m wearing), and sienna (above). There’s also a turtleneck version in four colors.

This sweater was my favorite of the bunch. The details of the wider neckline and the texture elevate the look a bit. I’m not quite ready to part with $150 for this sweater (especially because of my sensitive skin), but I’m thinking about it!

UPDATE 2/16/20 – I bought the ReCashmere Stroopwafel Crew in December a few days after writing this post. It was a bit of a splurge for me, but I’m glad I went for it. I really love it.

I ordered both the dark blue heathered ink and the heathered sand. While both colors were great, I decided to keep the latter since I’m trying to branch out from wearing mostly dark colors. In the two months that I’ve been wearing it, I have no complaints. The cut and shape are exactly what I was looking for: something cozy and a bit loose but not overwhelming on my petite frame. It keeps me warm in my chilly apartment. Pilling has been minimal, just a little bit under the armpits.

As to the irritation of the fabric, it’s not bad. Yes, it does bother my sensitive skin. But because the sweater is a medium thickness, I can wear a T-shirt underneath without it showing. This covers the areas where my skin is most sensitive, and I find that I can wear this sweater all day. It still prickles my arms some. Curious to see if it gets softer over time with wears or not.

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