AN IRISH ARAN SWEATER DISPLAYED IN THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART IN NEW YORK!

The Irish Aran sweater an instantly recognisable iconic style worthy of a place among the Museum of Modern Arts landmark fashion garments.

The definition of a classic, in many ways, is how well something stands the test of time, and what meaning it acquires therewith. While the Irish Aran cable sweater has gone through a century of waxing and waning fortunes, today it stands included among 111 fashion garments selected for an upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) IN New York. The inclusion of an Aran among carefully selected iconic items that have defined fashion over the last century is a clear nod to the artisan craft of Irish knitwear.

An array of style icons has been captured wearing the famous Irish wool Aran jumper at various points throughout the last century. Yet its the stories that people tell today that attest to the importance of this craft for generations throughout the years. Its the fact that our parents and grandparents have gone through college wearing an Aran hand-knitted by their grandmothers; the way we too would leave the house for college borrowing mum or dads Aran jumper; and, the memories of kissing our sweetheart for the first time - while wearing that oversized borrowed Aran sweater to the cinema date.

Remember all the slagging you may have got for being dressed (by mum - against your will) in Irish sweaters when in school, erstwhile? There seems to be a million lightyears between those days of having to defend your cool against the odds - wearing a frumpy Aran sweater, and the sexiness of it all when considering that Grace Kelly could pull it off, never mind that it is about to go on display alongside the Birkin bag and a pair of Levis 501!

I still claim to have brought the Aran cable sweater back from the dead all by myself, in the mid 2000s, when I was the only local kid on Trinity College Dublin campus sporting a garment that was otherwise considered by the Irish themselves albeit, for a brief period only as a piece of nostalgic touristy gimmicks. And who knows who copied whom this time around on fashions carousel of revivals, but one things for sure: that comeback was for good. There is today no better way to express character than to get your Aran knit on - the array of choice picks is astounding. Different Aran strokes for different folks, perhaps All of which - so long as its Aran stitches now instantly recognizable as part of that enchanting tale of the Aran sweater that the MoMA exhibition has set out to tell

The Irish Aran Sweater Displayed

A modern version of the Irish Aran Sweater