Sweater

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The rare knitted silks of the seventeenth have never been fully explained, but were probably informal wear. Today they could be purposeful as skiwear or underwear, a light sweater, or a chic bodice. Decorated to be seen, these knits are not represented in painting of the period, yet their role was clearly as a comfortable year-round clothing more consequential than any season's novelty.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art