I wore this Instagram famous sweater and never got so many compliments

Decency

When a few women on the street outside an art exhibition complimented me on my sweater, I didn’t think much of it. The sweater is very good and these women clearly had taste, but it’s just another day in New York, baby!

But then I received another compliment and another, and when John Mulaney’s ex-wife, fashion artist Anna Marie Tendler, stopped me and asked if I The When I put the sweater on, I realized it wasn’t just any cardigan. The sweater itself was a celebrity, and like Jennifer Lawrence’s husband, I was famous because of my association with him.

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I can hardly take credit for my fans’ adoration (obviously none of this has gone to my head). The sweater is from the brand Myracle, founded just last year by two New York-based graduate students, Beste Tonga and Hilal Palacioglu. All of Myracle’s sweaters are made in Turkey, where both founders are from, and handcrafted by women who have been knitting for most of their lives—including Tonga and Palacioglu’s own friends and family.

Although Myracle’s main goal was simply to build a high-performing, sustainable company, the founders did more: They designed this season’s it-sweater in the process.

“We both come from families where our mothers couldn’t work and couldn’t earn money,” Beste told me last year. “So we wanted to do something to help women work.”

So, to answer the questions of the five (!) women who asked me if my sweater is “from the brand that employs women in Turkey”, the answer is yes! And each creation comes with a handwritten label with the name of the knitter who made it.

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Myracle’s creative process is a collaborative one. Beste and Hilal work with their knitters on designs, and from there, each sweater is handmade to order. From start to finish, it takes a single knitter about a week to complete the process. The average price of $230 per piece reflects the tremendous amount of work that goes into not only making the sweaters, but also building the Myracle brand itself. Beste and Hilal, who sell their products on their Etsy shop, have found unexpected success in the fickle world of Instagram and TikTok. Their most popular styles, the Cloud Cardigan and the Red Strawberry Cardigan, are extremely popular with a certain group of influencers.

Full disclosure: I was given my cardigan—which is made of softball-sized, plush strawberries sewn onto white wool—as a gift after interviewing Beste and Hilal for a story on knitting trends this spring. When I got my Red Strawberry Cardigan in the summer, it was too hot to wear, but now that temperatures have dropped below 15 degrees, it’s becoming my favorite statement piece.

But don’t just take my word for it. Ask the woman who touched the sweater (with my permission) if it “itches or scratches,” as some wool sweaters can.

“Oh wow, that’s so cozy,” she said, admiring the wool. “I think I’ll order one for myself.”