The new knitwear style we’re introducing today – the Exmoor – is a slightly thicker version of the Dartmoor knit that has been a PS staple for the past 13 years (thirteen!).

The Dartmoor is beautiful, but one question that always came up was whether it could be worn with jeans, and other more casual trousers. The point of the Dartmoor (and the rest of the ‘finest’ range) was that it was made in the finest merino available, at the finest gauge, by the finest maker. 

That was great, but a little limiting. It set it apart from everything else in the market, but it also meant it was really best with tailoring. So earlier this year we started playing with thicker versions – not much thicker, but enough to make it just as good with blue jeans at the weekend, as with a suit during the week. 

The result is the Exmoor, pictured here, which is now available in cream and black on the PS Shop.

The yarn is the same as the Dartmoor, but in a higher ply and lower gauge, making it roughly 50% thicker than the Dartmoor. This makes a real difference, but is still thinner than a two-ply cashmere like our Cashmere Crewneck, by way of comparison. Those who came to the pop-ups in London and New York saw it in person, and I know there’s now a large group of people waiting for it. 

Having the same yarn also means the Exmoor retains that same luxurious feel of the Dartmoor – the cashmere touch, but merino performance. 

Every other aspect of the Exmoor is the same – the same elegant turn-down collar, the same mother-of-pearl buttons, the same body fit. The same best-in-class make at Umbria Verde who, as we’ve written before, make for some of the best designer brands in the world.

In fact, here’s more on Umbria Verde. It’s nice to celebrate the makers, particularly them as Simone and the team have grown so much in recent years off the back of their quality. 

In terms of colours, cream was one I was keen to do because readers often said they wanted a more substantial version in that colour. Cream is so great under tailoring (as well as on its own, with everything from navy and grey to olive and brown trousers, chinos and denim). 

Unusually, the other other colour we’ve led with this time is black, for two reasons. 

One, black hasn’t been offered in the Dartmoor for a while, so we wanted to give people the opportunity to get a long-sleeved knit in that again. And two, I’ve found I’ve been wearing a black knit under tailoring a lot recently. 

I think it’s because black goes so well with other things in my ‘cold-colour’ wardrobe – dark brown, dark olive, creams and greys. There are lots of dark-brown jackets I end up wearing mine with, and mid-brown too (as below). 

Initially I wore black shoes and belts with these kinds of combinations, but increasingly it’s with dark-brown shoes as well – like the Edward Green boots in this outfit – and with brown suede too. 

Black and brown is an interesting combination, one that’s very useful but can be tricky in certain combinations – such as black jeans and brown shoes. It helps if one of them has rather more texture, or is a little faded like with black jeans. 

At the bottom of this post I’ve included some other outfits with black knits, to show the kind of range of colours they can go with.

There are a dozen or so Dartmoors left, but after that they won’t be replaced. This is our new standard collared sweater, sitting halfway between the Finest Polo (lightweight, made for summer) and the Cashmere Rugby (heavy, made for winter). It feels like a good range.

The shots here come from a visit to Scotland a couple of months ago. I’m wearing my Ciardi jacket in Anglo-Italian cloth originally covered here, with charcoal trousers in Fox Flannel and Edward Green ‘Top Drawer’ boots in an old style called Compton (no relation). 

Interestingly, those boots are 15 years old and while beautiful, haven’t been worn as much in recent years because the oxford-lacing style feels quite smart. I don’t see that or similar styles like the Shannon offered much today by EG either. 

I actually used to have the same style of shoe in a combination of black calf and black suede, but that spats-type look began to feel too dandy a few years ago. Interesting how you can see these things slowly change – though my style certainly changes less than it used to, it’s not a question of just following fashions. 

Anyway, Exmoor available here. Any questions on that or on shoe-illustrated fashion trends, let me know.