Two blues · two necklines · one loud, one quiet
Blue Cashmere Sweaters for Men
Two blues at opposite ends of the same scale. Indigo is a saturated royal blue that organises an outfit around itself. Sky Blue is dusty enough to pass for a neutral. Both are on the crew neck and the V-neck at $155, in S–2XL. The navy is a separate shade on a separate page, deliberately.
Tiles open the full style page. There is no cart on this site — each style page links out to the live listing on the parent catalogue.
Which blue is on which sweater
Two blue colourways, both on both knitted styles. The last two rows are the blues that are not counted on this page, and why.
| Colourway | Crew Neck | V-Neck | Quarter Zip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indigo#023f92A true strong blue at full chroma. The loudest colour in the range after the crimson. | YesPhotographed in this colour | YesPhotographed in this colour | — |
| Sky Blue#7490b4A dusty, greyed pale blue. Behaves almost like a neutral and is the easiest shade here to wear. | YesPhotographed in this colour | YesPhotographed in this colour | — |
| Yale Blue#2e3758 | This is the navy, and navy is a different purchase from blue. It has its own page: Navy Cashmere Sweaters for Men. | ||
| Muted Grey-Blue#6B6D7A | The quarter zip's only colourway. There is more grey in it than blue and it is sold as a grey, so it is on the Grey Cashmere Sweaters for Men page and not counted here. | ||
Both blues, on both necklines
Four combinations, each shot from its own dye lot. Put the indigo and the sky blue side by side and it is obvious they are not versions of one colour.
Two blues, opposite jobs
Indigo #023f92 has almost no red in it — red 2, green 63, blue 146 — which puts it about as far towards pure blue as a dye gets. That is what makes it read royal rather than navy, and it is why it cannot be treated as a background colour. An indigo sweater is the thing people see first.
Sky Blue #7490b4 is the same hue with grey mixed through it. The channels sit at 116, 144 and 180 — still blue-dominant, but close enough together that the saturation drops away. That is a dusty blue, and dusty colours behave like neutrals. If you want a blue sweater that you stop noticing after a week, this is it.
How to wear them
- Indigo with grey. Charcoal or mid-grey flannel is the only trouser that lets a royal blue be loud without looking costumed. Grey is the frame; the sweater is the picture.
- Indigo with cream or white below the waist. Works in warmer months, and is the version that does not read as officewear.
- Sky Blue under a navy blazer. The pairing indigo cannot do. The values are far enough apart that it reads as a deliberate tonal outfit.
- Sky Blue with tan, camel or mid-brown. Blue and tan is the oldest reliable pairing in menswear and a desaturated blue is the easiest way into it.
- Not indigo with navy. Two strong blues at close range look like a mismatch rather than a match — the same failure as Black Cashmere Sweaters for Men under a navy jacket.
Who they suit
Indigo is kindest to cool colouring — pale or pink skin, dark or grey hair — where the contrast does the work. On deep or warm complexions it can look like a colour that has been put on you rather than chosen by you. Sky Blue is the opposite: it is the least demanding shade in the whole range and there is almost no colouring it actively fights, which is why it is the safest first cashmere sweater a man buys after grey and navy.
What a saturated blue shows you
Deep, high-chroma shades are unforgiving of the fabric underneath them. On a knitting machine, yarn tension shifts slightly between cones and across a run, and a fractionally different tension gives a fractionally different stitch density. On a pale or greyed cloth you will never see it. On indigo, a slight change in density reads as a faint band, because there is simply more colour per centimetre where the cloth is tighter.
We would rather say that plainly than have you find it and think the sweater is faulty. It is the visible signature of the way the cloth was made. If a perfectly uniform surface is what you are buying, a machine-knitted sweater will give it to you and cost less.
| Indigo | Indigo-blue-52-dye · #023f92 |
|---|---|
| Sky Blue | Skyblue-48l-dye · #7490b4 |
| On | Crew neck · V-neck |
| Price | $155 |
| Sizes | S · M · L · XL · 2XL |
| Composition | 100% Grade A Himalayan cashmere, 12–16 micron |
| Origin | Mustang, Manang & Dolpo · above 3,000 m |
| Construction | Knitted in our Pokhara workshop |
| Lightfastness rating | To be confirmed from the workshop |
We have not been given a lightfastness figure for these dyes, so we are not publishing one. The safe practice for any saturated colour is the same: dry it flat, indoors, out of direct sun.
Pilling shows more on the indigo than on the sky blue, for the same reason it shows on black — pale surface fibres against a dark ground. Why it happens and what stops it.
Blue on a particular neckline, or another colour
The style pages carry the size chart, the specification and every colourway.
Men's Crew Neck Cashmere Sweater
Indigo and Sky Blue, plus twelve other colourways. The cleanest of the three under a jacket.
14 colours · $155 →Men's V-Neck Cashmere Sweater
Both blues again, with a shirt collar breaking the colour at the throat. Easier to carry in indigo.
13 colours · $155 →Men's Quarter Zip Cashmere Sweater
Made in a muted grey-blue that we list as grey rather than blue. The warmest of the three at the throat.
Free size · $120 →Nearby colours
Navy is the blue most men actually mean; grey and green are what these two sit beside best.
The stitch that shows through the indigo is the same one behind every colourway — Himalayan Cashmere Sweaters, Made in Pokhara.
Questions about the blues
Is Indigo the same as navy?
No. Indigo #023f92 is a saturated royal blue — bright, high chroma, closer to a primary than to a navy. Navy is Yale Blue #2e3758, a dark navy-slate, and it has its own page. If you searched for blue and meant navy, that is the one you want.
Which of the two blues is easier to wear?
Sky Blue, by a wide margin. It is desaturated enough to behave like a neutral, so it sits under a navy jacket and over a white shirt without arguing with either. Indigo is a statement colour that needs the rest of the outfit to stay quiet.
Can I wear a bright blue sweater with navy trousers?
It is the hardest thing to do well here. Indigo against navy is close enough to look unintentional, in the same way black against navy does. Indigo goes with grey, charcoal, cream and white. Sky Blue with navy is fine because the values are far apart.
Why isn't the quarter zip on this page?
Because its one colourway, Muted Grey-Blue #6B6D7A, is sold as a grey and there is more grey in it than blue. It is listed on the grey hub. We could have counted it here to make this page look bigger; it would not have been true.
Does the knit show more on a strong blue?
It can. A deep, saturated shade makes any variation in stitch density read as a faint band across the fabric, where a pale or desaturated colour hides it. Indigo is the colourway where you are most likely to notice it. It is a property of the yarn and the tension, not a fault.