history of ugly christmas sweaters

"The sweater has existed in the U.S. since the late 19th century, hideous holiday versions only began to sprout up in the last several decades. There was a noticeable boost in ugly sweater parties around 2001, and the tradition grew from there."--Lana Richard

The sweater has existed in the U.S. since the late 19th century, hideous holiday versions only began to sprout up in the last several decades. There was a noticeable boost in ugly sweater parties around 2001, and the tradition grew from there.

The earliest examples of knitting we know today are the fragments of Egyptian Coptic socks, which were from 1000 CE. They were made from white and blue-dyed cotton. They had symbolic patterns called Kufic woven into them.
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According to heddels.com, “before the industrial revolution, a fisherman’s wife would knit him a sweater for his work. She would add her own minor touches to the sweater. At some point, people didn’t just wear these woolen hides, they started making thread from the fibers. During this period, hand-knitting had been practiced for almost two thousand years.”
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​The eighties had many ugly sweaters of all kinds, (Uglychristmassweater.com) which is where the ugly christmas sweater originally came from. Today, people choose to wear ugly sweaters as a vintage look. The rise of ugly Christmas sweaters began in the late eighties when television stars like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’s Chevy Chase rocked oddly patterned sweaters.

The trend slowly came into the nineties, but had a boom in 2001 that lead to the rise of popularity. Celebrities, TV hosts, and department stores are some of the many partakers in this festive tradition.”