Grey Cashmere Sweaters for Men

Grey is a temperature, not a colour

A neutral grey has equal red, green and blue in it. None of ours does, and that is the useful thing to know before you buy two of them.

• Ash Grey #9b8991 — red 155, green 137, blue 145. More red than green, so it runs warm, with a mauve lean you notice in daylight and never under a lamp.
• Graphite #34343c — blue sits above red and green, so it runs cool. It is very nearly a charcoal and reads as one at arm's length.
• Muted Grey-Blue #6B6D7A — the quarter zip's only shade, cooler still. The parent sells it as "Grey". There is real blue in it and you will see it against a white shirt.

The practical consequence: do not wear the Ash Grey crew with Graphite trousers, or the quarter zip over an ash-grey collar. Two greys of different temperature at close range look like a failed match, where grey against navy, brown or denim looks intentional.

How to wear it

• Ash Grey crew under a navy blazer. The single most useful combination a man can own, and the reason mid-grey knitwear outsells everything else. The fit constraints that decide whether it works — chest, sleeve and where the shirt collar goes — are on Wearing a Sweater Under a Blazer (and Suit).
• Graphite V-neck with a white shirt and charcoal trousers. Reads as tailoring rather than as a sweater. The nearest thing here to a suit substitute.
• The quarter zip on its own, over a t-shirt, with denim. It is the warmest of the three at the throat and the only one designed to be worn with nothing over it.
• Any of them with tan or mid-brown. Grey is the neutral that lets brown shoes, a tan jacket or a camel scarf do the talking.

Grey is also the default under an odd jacket, because it separates cleanly from tweed, houndstooth or a brown check without ever looking like a failed match. Getting that right is mostly arithmetic — How to Wear a Sport Coat with a Sweater sets out the three measurements to take before you order.

Who it suits

Everyone, which is the whole argument for grey. It is the only shade in the range that flatters both high-contrast colouring (dark hair, pale skin) and low-contrast colouring (fair or grey hair, soft skin), because you can pick the value rather than the hue. Fair and grey-haired men should take Graphite for contrast; darker colouring can carry Ash Grey close to the face without disappearing into it.

The only page with all three necklines

Because the quarter zip is made in one colourway, this is the only colour on the site where you actually get a choice of construction. The differences are real:

The quarter zip is free size only — length 65, chest 50, sleeve 60 cm, garment laid flat. It is not offered in S–2XL, so check those three numbers against a sweater you already own before ordering.

Its collar is the one shape here that is neither a crew nor a V, and it is the reason this grey behaves differently from the other two on the page: Funnel Neck Sweaters for Men describes what a funnel neck is and who it suits.

Sizes on the crew and the V-neck

Garment laid flat, in centimetres. Between sizes, take the larger. Full fit notes are on the size guide.

Grey hides pilling better than any other colour here, but it does not prevent it — every cashmere sheds a few short surface fibres in the first two or three wears. Why that happens, and what stops it.