lineage
the Aran sweater

Honeycomb stitch on the centre panel of an Irish Aran sweater; its knitter isn't recorded. Photo Ww2censor, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Aran sweater

19 traced influences · 3 sources

dig the Aran sweater

What it took directly

  1. documentedThe Aran sweater's American fame took from the Clancy Brothers wearing Aran jumpers on The Ed Sullivan Show in the early 1960s"In the early 1960s, Irish musicians the Clancy Brothers, who emerged in the hip Greenwich Village folk scene that would also make Bob Dylan, famously wore Aran jumpers on the Ed Sullivan Show." Prof. Mary Burke (University of Connecticut), RTÉ Brainstorm (2020)
  2. statedDonegal's knitters (who switched from Fair Isle to Aran for Gaeltarra Éireann) took from the Clancy Brothers' fame in America"We all knitted fair isles for Gaeltarra Éireann for a few years until the Aran sweaters became fashionable. I think they became popular with the Clancys. You remember the Clancys? They went to America wearin’ the Aran sweaters" Mary McNelis, Donegal knitter and entrepreneur, quoted by Siún Carden, Costume (2014)
  3. documentedThe Aran sweater as an export took from the world's first duty-free shop, opened at Shannon Airport in 1947"However, Ireland’s promotion of quality heritage goods to prosperous Americans began in earnest after the world's first duty-free shop opened at Shannon Airport in 1947." Prof. Mary Burke, RTÉ Brainstorm (2020)
  4. documentedMaureen Evans's modernised Arans learned from Kay Peterson, former manager of Shannon's duty-free shop, the first to promote Arans as high fashion"Evans credited Kay Peterson, a former manager of Shannon’s duty-free shop, as the first person to promote Arans as high fashion." Prof. Mary Burke, RTÉ Brainstorm (2020), reporting Evans's own credit
  5. documentedThe Aran sweater in America took from an Aran pattern published by Vogue Knitting in 1956"Vogue Knitting published an Aran pattern in 1956 and the design became popular in America." Victoria and Albert Museum, regional knitting features (archived)
  6. documentedThe Aran sweater as a product comes from Muriel Gahan, who began selling it in The Country Shop, her Dublin crafts outlet, in the 1930s"In the 1930s, Muriel Gahan, a founding member of the Arts Council, began to sell the garment in The Country Shop, her Dublin fair-trade outlet for Irish crafts." Prof. Mary Burke, RTÉ Brainstorm (2020)
  7. documentedThe Aran sweater trade comes from hundreds of home knitters: over 500 supplied one Galway store by 1963"By the time it was featured on RTE in 1963, one Galway Aran knitwear store was being supplied by over 500 local home knitters" Prof. Mary Burke, RTÉ Brainstorm (2020)
  8. documentedAran knitting as a cottage industry comes from the Congested Districts Board, set up by the government in 1891"In 1891 the government set up the Congested Districts Board to help poor families to survive unemployment and a shortage of potatoes." Victoria and Albert Museum, regional knitting features (archived)
  9. inferredThe Aran sweater's Folklore-era revival took from Taylor Swift's folklore photoshoot"When Taylor Swift dropped her album Folklore in July, its title and the Aran jumper she wore for an accompanying photoshoot were a combination calculated to signal authenticity." inferred — Mary Burke reads the folklore photoshoot as a signal of authenticity and wonders whether it will bring Arans another fashion moment; whether it did is not in her article

What it learned to do

  1. documentedAran knitters learned from the Board's training in honeycomb, figure eight and double diamond"By the 20th century this cottage industry began to take off and the Board trained knitters to create complex patterns from stitches such as honeycomb, figure eight and double diamond." Victoria and Albert Museum, regional knitting features (archived)
  2. documentedThe Aran sweater's undyed yarn comes from islanders experimenting away from the dark, oiled wool of fishermen's jerseys"Instead of the dark coloured, oiled wools traditionally used to make fishermen’s jerseys, the islanders experimented with soft, thick, undyed yarn." Victoria and Albert Museum, regional knitting features (archived)
  3. documentedAran stitch patterns took from European knitting patterns brought back from Boston by returned emigrants"as Elizabeth McCrum notes, islanders also drew on European knitting patterns brought back from Boston by returned emigrants in devising the Aran version of the fisherman’s sweater" Prof. Mary Burke, RTÉ Brainstorm (2020), citing Elizabeth McCrum

The tradition it sits in

  1. documentedThe Aran hand-knit comes from the ganseys of British fishermen who came to Aran for a fisheries project in the early 20th century"had a surprisingly late evolution, since it was islanders’ adaptation of the ganseys of British fishermen who came to Aran as part of a fisheries improvement project in the early 20th century." Prof. Mary Burke, RTÉ Brainstorm (2020)
  2. documentedThe drowned-fisherman story told about the sweater comes from J. M. Synge's play Riders to the Sea (1904), perhaps"James Millington Synge’s play Riders to the Sea (1904) is often cited as a possible seed of the story" Siún Carden, "Cable Crossings", Costume (2014)
  3. documentedThe story that Aran stitches are ancient Celtic patterns comes from Heinz Kiewe, a German textile enthusiast, from 1938"a German textile enthusiast, Heinz Kiewe (1906-1986), suggested a direct connection between the patterns on Aran jumpers and the so-called Celtic swirl designs of medieval and even pre-Christian Ireland, a theory he began promoting in 1938" Siún Carden, "Cable Crossings", Costume (2014)
  4. documentedThe story that a lost fisherman was known by his gansey comes from Pádraig O’Síocháin, founder of the Galway Bay Company, which sold Aran knitwear"Pádraig O’ Síocháin reports that ‘the Aran gansey has always been an unfailing source of identification of Islandmen lost at sea’. It is important to note that O’Síocháin was the founder of the Galway Bay Company which sold Aran knitwear" Siún Carden, "Cable Crossings", Costume (2014)
  5. inferredThe Aran sweater's mid-century rise in America comes from Irish America's rise in status, money and political power"The mid-20th century rise of the Aran jumper coincided with the rise of Irish America in terms of social status, economic resources and political power." inferred — Siún Carden says the two rose at the same time; she does not say one caused the other

Where the whole form comes from

  1. documentedThe cable-patterned Aran jumper comes from the 20th century, not antiquity"Contrary to popular belief, the typical cable-patterned Aran jumper is a 20th-century invention." Victoria and Albert Museum, regional knitting features (archived)
  2. documentedThe fisherman's sweater comes from the chunky, dark woollen jumpers fishermen wore all over the British Isles"Chunky, dark-coloured woollen jumpers were a staple of fishermen’s gear all over the British Isles." Victoria and Albert Museum, regional knitting features (archived)

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