If you didn’t know, today marks the birthday of one Mr. Stephen Ostrowski, the SHEI Blog Editor and the man who makes this website happen. His hard work these past few months makes up a large part of the extraordinary amount of time, effort, and dedication our team members put into the blog, and for that, I personally would like to thank him. In honor of his special day, I decided to dedicate a post to an item close to Stephen’s heart: the cardigan. As you can see from the picture on his contributor page, Stephen is one hell of a snappy dresser. As such, I thought I’d show you three appropriately snappy cardigans, across all price ranges, of course. Here it goes!

Pricey: Burberry Tonal Check Cardigan

It's hot. Admit it. And it can be yours for only $550!

Burberry’s cardigan is borderline-absurdly expensive (You’d pay that much for a cardigan? Seriously?), but then again, I’d love to have it (as would, I can imagine, Stephen). I’m not entirely sure why it draws my eye as it does, but hell, it’s an amazing cardigan.

Mid-range: Topman Charcoal Trim Stitch Cardigan

Understated, yet awesome. Boo-ya-ka-shah.

Full disclosure: I’m not a huge fan of loud, bright, annoying garments (for a brilliant write-up by SHEI’s own Kevin Binder on why they are bad, see the newest issue of SHEI Magazine, releasing on April 11th!). As such, Topman’s Trim Stitch cardigan is the perfect response to the brazen and bold neon-American Apparel-esque cardigans that seem to have been populating Ann Arbor this spring. It’s subtle, it’s understated, but it’s snazzy and it makes an impression.

Budget: H&M’s ‘Cardigan’

Intricate without being annoying.

This last cardigan runs in the same vein as the previous; while it’s significantly more intricate than the mid-range one (tragically, the design does not render particularly well on computer screens), it is so without being annoying, which is my great lament about many of today’s cardigans. At less than thirty bucks, H&M’s imaginatively named ‘Cardigan’ is the best kind of sexy: the type that is easy on your wallet.

Once again, happy birthday Stephen! Readers, make sure you pass along a message to Stephen today (or just leave one in the comments!).

Sagar Deshpande
Literary Editor