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harveyguilleniconodelamoda · 8 days

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Costume Spotlight: Guillermo's Sweaters in WWDITS Season 1

One of the things that makes WWDITS so visually compelling is the way the characters have the real-world equivalent of cartoon uniforms. But instead of wearing the same thing every day, they wear variations on the same theme every day. This serves not only to establish a strong visual identity for each character, but also provides opportunities for visual shorthand to underscore a particular bit or even a major character or relationship arc with a wardrobe change.

Guillermo has undergone just such a transformation many times over the course of the show's current five seasons, with his clothes becoming better fitted, more coordinated and intentional, and more functional as his arc has developed. But throughout it all, the sweaters have remained a key part of his character uniform.

If there's one piece of incontrovertible proof that vampires have no taste (affectionate), it's the fact that Nadja, Laszlo, and Nandor keep calling Guillermo's sweaters shitty. Never have I so envied a character's wardrobe as when I first saw Harvey appear on my screen in a seemingly endless succession of gorgeous, thick, intricately patterned and textured, cozy sweaters. But as I said in a recent post, that proved to be a massive undertaking, so I've broken it down into somewhat smaller posts by season. Starting, of course, with season 1!

Guillermo wears sixteen different sweaters and cardigans over the course of season 1 alone (and at least five different jackets, not counting the suit jacket he wore to Madelin's funeral in 1x10--I'll do a separate post on the jackets at some point). These tend to fall into a few broad categories.

Fair Isle Knits

Though many of us in places without year-round sweater weather may think of Fair Isle as primarily a winter holiday motif, the term actually refers to a particular method of knitting that allows the knitter to incorporate multiple colors using two strands of yarn or more. Traditional Fair Isle patterns incorporate five colors. This method originated in Fair Isle, Scotland, thus the name. (Source)

Fair Isle sweaters are typically made of high quality cotton or wool, and can create intricate patterns such as the bird motif on this sweater from 1x02 and 1x07.

Guillermo wears Fair Isle pullovers and cardigans the most often throughout the series, especially in the first season. The most distinctive of these is the bird pattern above, but he also wears a multicolor cardigan in 1x01, as well as a more abstract gray-toned Fair Isle sweater, a brown one, and even a red one throughout the season.

These sweaters are not cheap, either, at least not when of the quality he typically wears (many cheaper Fair Isle sweaters only feature the technique on the front or collar of the garment, with the rest of the garment being all one color). A well-made Fair Isle sweater can easily cost in the hundreds, and Guillermo has around half a dozen or so of them in the first season. This lends credence to my personal headcanon that Guillermo, who works for no pay and owes $1200 a month in rent, most likely gets a lot of his clothes by gift or by thrift--that is, they're presents from family members or he gets them heavily discounted at secondhand stores or websites.

Mosaic Knits

Mosaic knitting, like Fair Isle, is a technique for incorporating multiple colors into a single garment. In this technique, however, you only knit with one color per row. It is meant to be easier than other colorwork methods of knitting, and does not have floats (loose strands of leftover yarn on the back of the knitted work) the way Fair Isle does.

Mosaic knitting is great for creating colorful, repeating patterns, and can be done flat or in the round. Mosaic patterns can also be made to be reversible, due to the lack of floats, and the finished product is generally stretchier than the results of other techniques. (Source)

I also just really like the texture of mosaic knits? There's something about the way the threads fit together that scratches my brain pleasantly.

You can see an example of this style of sweater in 1x03 and 1x04, as well as throughout 1x09, when Guillermo is helping to plan the Orgy.

Fun fact: there's a goof in the editing of this episode! Throughout most of it, Guillermo is wearing this thick, crew-neck mosaic sweater. This is interspersed occasionally with images of him wearing a thinner brown Fair Isle v-neck pullover with a polo-style collar. This kind of switch-up is not uncommon, as talking heads meant to be filmed at a different time are often interspersed with in-the-moment action.

But when Guillermo bursts into the room toward the end of the episode and finds Jeremy losing his virginity with Constantine, he is wearing the mosaic sweater. However, when he steps out of the room and pulls the door closed behind him a second later, he is suddenly in the brown v-neck pullover from his talking head snippets.

(Thanks to @karofsky for inflicting this cursed knowledge upon me. <3)

Guillermo also wears this Fair Isle sweater in 1x03, and at the beginning of 1x10.

Guillermo wears one other sweater which, based on the texture and pattern, looks like it could be a mosaic knit:

This is the sweater he wears at the beginning of 1x04, when Laszlo asks his opinion about the witch skin hat and when Nandor is "flying" him around in front of the mirror.

Coogi Sweaters

These are the most elaborate and unique-looking sweaters Guillermo wears in the show.

Coogi is an Australian clothing brand originally founded in 1969 (then called Cuggi), known for its unusual textures, organic patterns, and bright colors. Egyptian designer Hazem Elsheltawi is the original creator of Coogi's unique fabrics, which have been inducted into the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt museum. For more facts and a brief timeline of the brand, check out this blog post by Filthy Rebena Vintage.

The distinctive Coogi style is achieved by combining several different knitting methods, including Fair Isle, Intarsia, ribbed and warp knitting, and stockinette and reverse stockinette knitting to create layers and textures that no one of the aforementioned methods could achieve on its own. The sources I found were conflicted on whether these sweaters are made by hand, or whether making them by hand would even be practical or feasible. For a thorough breakdown of a Coogi sweater and the various techniques involved, see this Reddit thread on r/MachineKnitting.

At first, I thought Guillermo only started wearing Coogi sweaters later on in the series, but upon closer inspection it appears he wears at least four Coogi or Coogi-style sweaters in the first season.

The first of these is in 1x02, an elaborately-patterned sweater in blues and reds that Guillermo wears to accompany Nandor to the City Council meeting (in what I like to call his Politician's Wife scene).

He wears this same sweater in 1x08 when he is assisting Nandor with studying for his citizenship test.

The second is the cardigan Guillermo wears in 1x06, 1x07, 1x08, and 1x10.

The third and fourth are also from 1x10, which is a very Coogi-heavy episode! Guillermo wears two black and white vertical striped sweaters that are very similar at the beginning and end of this episode.

I know I said I was going to leave the character analysis for its own post later on, but I find the choice to use two very similar sweaters in a single episode so interesting, especially given that he wears a total of six different sweaters just in this episode alone! Looking at them side-by-side, it strikes me that though they're both black and white, the one he wears at the beginning of the episode is on balance more white, and the one at the end of the episode has far more black.

At the beginning of the episode, Guillermo is still (as far as he and we know) just a human familiar. By the end, he has this dark secret to contend with. Comparing these two looks, it's like he's literally begun to be embraced by the shadows he lives among, like they're not just something he aspires to but already a part of him that he's slowly discovering.

I feel as though I've also definitely seen that Coogi cardigan in other seasons as well, so I'm excited to see what parallels there are to be drawn when I start to look at when he wears specific sweaters across the seasons!

These sweaters gained and grew in popularity in the mid-90s and early 2000s as various hip hop and rap artists began wearing the brand and mentioning it in their lyrics. The first of these was The Notorious B.I.G., who mentioned the brand in not one but three different songs. The brand has also been mentioned in lyrics by Kanye West, Rick Ross, Tyga, ASAP Ferg, Christian hip hop duo Social Club, and MC Suffa of Hilltop Hoods, who owns a collection of Coogi sweaters. The brand is sometimes mistakenly called the Cosby sweater, however Bill Cosby never wore Coogi sweaters as the costume designer on The Cosby Show hated the sweaters and thought they were too tacky for Dr. Huxtable.

Though they faded in popularity in the late 2000s, the sweaters saw a resurgence around 2014. Their popularity has waned somewhat since, but Coogi sweaters still signal 80s and 90s counterculture coolness for many fashion aficionados. Coogi clothes are now billed as luxury goods, which makes sense as a single Coogi sweater bought brand new can cost between $400-$600. There are, however, many pre-loved and vintage Coogi sweaters out there, often available for under $100.

Affordable Options

As I mentioned above, high-quality knit sweaters can be damned expensive! But we can do as Guillermo almost certainly does, and embrace thrift shopping! I don't have specific links this time, as links become irrelevant quickly on thrift and consignment sites. I can, however, provide a few tips on how to get your hands on a nice, pre-owned sweater that will have you saying "my name is Guillermo de la Cruz" like you mean it.

Recommended Sites:

Depop

Etsy

ThredUp

eBay

When using any of the above, be sure to search for "Fair Isle sweater," "Mosaic sweater," "Coogi sweater," or just "Coogi" and narrow down by your sizes before you start to browse. Also always check the label and garment details to make sure you're getting a fair price! There are a lot of imitations of Coogi sweaters especially out there, and you might have better luck with those if your Coogi findings are on the sparse side (though I didn't encounter this issue when searching).

Some good search terms include "Protege sweater" or Canadian brands like "Tundra" and "Consensus." They all make nice sweaters in a Coogi-esque style, but should never be costing you anything near Coogi prices, as even a genuine Coogi sweater typically goes for under $75 on any of the above sites. I'd also recommend looking when sweaters are off season; they're going to be in much higher demand, and thus harder to find for a good price, in the fall and winter.

Focus on vintage sweaters from the 80s and 90s where possible, as those are going to give you the most Guillermo styles. For colors, look for patterns with a gray, brown, deep forest green, or muted/navy blue base. Reds should typically only be accents within the pattern, not the dominant color (unless you want to create your own unique vamp!Guillermo look).

Go forth and get cozy!

Note: The information about knitting in this post is the result of several weeks of research on hobbyist sites and video tutorials, but I am not a knitter. If I have gotten anything wrong or misunderstood anything about these techniques, please send me an ask! I'm always eager to learn more!

#wwdits #guillermo de la cruz #character costumes #fair isle #coogi #harvey guillén #fashion #plus size fashion #sustainable fashion #mosaic knitting

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