Remember That Sweater From ‘The Brutalist’? Well, Now You Can Buy It

“I was surprised and delighted by how those clothes were received, but especially delighted by the huge amount of interest in this sweater,” says Forbes of the effusive response to her work on the film. “I guess it leaves me feeling that my approach to have László Tóth feel very timeless and almost modern next to his counterparts paid off, in that even though all his costumes were genuine vintage pieces from the time, his aesthetic feels relevant and very wearable today.” As for the decision to recreate the piece with Blumberg? “Honestly, just seeing the reaction to that sweater made me feel like I needed to bring it back to life,” she adds. “I loved seeing the response to a modest piece of vintage clothing being plucked from anonymity, and finding its way onto the big screen, and becoming so talked about.”

For Blumberg, whose work often involves developing new techniques and fabrications for cutting-edge designers, it offered a different kind of challenge. “So many people have told me about how they elbowed their friends in the cinema when they first saw this sweater, because they were so excited by it,” she says. “When I’ve mentioned working on a sweater from The Brutalist, people seem to instantly know which one I’m talking about.” Having initially studied architecture before moving into knitwear—architectural is a word that comes up repeatedly from both Forbes and Blumberg when describing the garment, which feels especially fitting given Tóth’s occupation—the opportunity felt like kismet. Still, it took many iterations before they managed to get the details exactly right. “It’s an amazingly constructed garment,” Blumberg says, noting that upon getting her hands on the original piece, she discovered that it had been “fully fashioned”—i.e., knitted into its exact final shape without any cutting or sewing. “That’s the beauty of true knitwear,” she adds. “It’s grown into its form.”