VIDEO – Ugly Christmas sweaters: the funny trend in five figures

With the Christmas sweater, kitsch is assumed, delighting followers of this new tradition of the end of the year celebrations. But also the many ready-to-wear brands that no longer fail to launch their own collection. A nod to the good old itchy sweaters, knitted by grandmother, this unsightly, colorful garment with flashy patterns has become a “must” festivities with friends or office colleagues. To the point that some even take the opportunity to organize contests.

Here are five dates and numbers tracing the history and illustrating the ugly Christmas sweater business.

The ugly Christmas sweater has become a tradition in this festive winter period, to the point that an entire day is devoted to it. Since 2011, it has been decided that every third Friday in December would be an opportunity to celebrate this garment, which is often the subject of competitions to decide which stands out the most for its ugliness. This year 2021, for the ten years of the establishment of this tradition, the ugly Christmas sweater is celebrated this Friday, December 17.

It’s hard to tell when the first Christmas sweater was knitted. If their marketing would have started in the 1980s, the first evening highlighting this now iconic garment would go back to 2002, a year after the release of the film Bridget Jones in which Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) caused a sensation with a reindeer-head sweater. According to research by Brian Miller, one of the authors of the book Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book: The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Ugly On, this first party honoring ugly Christmas sweaters was organized by two Canadians in Vancouver to raise funds for the treatment of a friend of theirs suffering from cancer.

The party was a success, paving the way for similar events across the northern hemisphere. Today, the ugly pullover parties may have lost that charity side, but the kitsch and the spirit of self-mockery are still relevant and may explain the success of the trend.

Riding on this trend, many ready-to-wear brands have also launched their collection of Christmas sweaters. This is the case with the Vélizy-Villacoublay clothing store where TF1 goes in the report at the top of this article. Thanks to the sale of sweaters on the theme of the end of the year holidays, the store is ensuring that its turnover for the month of December is increased by 5%.

“Right away, it was very quickly sucked in by the brands. The idea is to try to sell ugly sweaters to a population that they would not necessarily have as customers, that is, rather say young people, but above all to make them buy what? Not ugly sweaters, that is to say sweaters that they will put on every day “, explains Rodolphe Bonnasse, expert in mass distribution.

To the point that brands like Lidl have also entered this sector. Thursday, on the eve of this international Christmas sweater day, the German discount brand has put on sale its own models in its colors. At a price of 9.99 euros, half of the 500,000 sweaters available throughout France were sold in one day.

“We have a good dynamic on our brand, on our logo, and therefore, we also wanted to try with the sweater, and it takes! And the customer is also happy with this type of product”, praises Mehdi Houari, non-food sales manager at Lidl France. But behind the busy shopping carts sometimes hides a very lucrative business on the Internet. The product can then cost 40 euros, 55 euros, or even 130 euros for some advertisements. That is thirteen times the value of the initial price.

So to keep the initial spirit of self-mockery and escape the commercial side that this trend has taken, a world championship of the ugly sweater has been organized since 2016. For its fifth edition, this competition was held on December 4th. in Albi, in the Tarn.

In announcing the event, the organizers agree to accept “the most vintage, quirky, ugly and surprising sweater. Christmas sweaters, itchy turtlenecks, sweaters from the 60s, 70s, 80s even the” Waikiki “”. The first condition remains that the sweater is handmade, in order to reward everyone’s creativity. Far from a very serious competition, the championship was mostly held in a good mood. Winners have nevertheless been designated, whose photo, taken from the program “Quotidien”, appears above.