If you’ve followed us for a while, you know Joe Browns menswear is all about showing off your personality through our colourful and confident clothing.

None of our styles are quite as vibrant as our knitwear, and this season has some of the most adventurous designs yet. Of course, we were dying to know the secrets behind them! 

So, we sat down with our Senior Menswear Buyer, Adele Tyrell, and she gave us all the inside scoop on how Joe Browns knitwear is designed and what makes our jumpers and cardigans stand out from the crowd.

Ready for a glimpse of JB magic? Read the full interview below.

I think what really makes our knitwear feel unique is colour and pattern, and having a lot of confidence with the designs.

There’s a lot of basic knitwear out there, but one thing we try to do across all of our menswear is to add a point of difference. Knitwear is one of my favourite collections because you can have a lot of fun with it. 

You can have a lot of fun with styling, a lot of fun with colours, and so much pattern comes through with knitwear. It’s one of the menswear styles you can chuck everything at and it doesn’t end up being too scary. 

Our knits make great layering pieces as well, so a lot of them are worn in early autumn as jackets. Because they're feature pieces, you can team them back with denim shirts, and plain t-shirts, and jeans, and you’ve got a statement style that’s not too expensive. 

A lot of our knitwear is such good value for money, even at the higher price points. We use some really great quality yarns. We work really closely with our supply base to use the newest yarns that they’re bringing out and the newest techniques.

The design process always varies, but it starts off by me finding some patterns that might be inspired by our campaign stories. This season, one of our stories is Adventure’s Playground, which is all about the great outdoors.

We were looking at the wild west as a theme, so we looked at the different patterns and designs you’d find in the American west. Then, we looked at the shapes that would work for our knitwear, and I found the right yarn.  Then, I combined all three together, and worked with our suppliers on some patterns.

Our knitwear patterns could come from me giving the suppliers images and them creating the patterns, or me doing some sketching. They’ll build the patterns and send it to me for approval. Then, I’ll pick the shapes and the unique details to go on it.

We know Joe Browns men love our patchwork cardigans, so we’ve given ours a bit of an upgrade with this style. We’ve put a bit more vibrancy into it with the bold colour palette.

A few years ago, we had an Aztec cardigan and the colours in that were really rich. It had bright red, orange, and blue, and that worked really well for us. 

So, for this one, we’ve combined the patchworks with the best-selling Aztec and put those together!

This is something that’s worked for us before. We’ve done it on normal jersey knits, but this time we’ve done it with a very subtle aztec pattern but it’s acid washed indigo, so it’s something that’s a bit grittier than the other styles.

Our Out In The Wild Cardigan is a new take on our Aztec designs, which have done really well for us in the past. This time, the Aztec is very subtle with black and orange patterns and a striking eagle design on the back.

I’ve styled it up with our Customised Western Shirt and it’s got quite an earthy palette around it. We put the cardigan on our menswear model, Ricky, so it’s got a cooler, edgy vibe to it.

Preppy is something we’re touching on this season. So, we’ve got zip-up funnel jumpers, and we’ve introduced them with some smarter shirts. It’s got a sort of smart/preppy vibe to it, and when we’ve styled it sometimes we’ve put a collegiate tie with it. 

So, they can be styled like that or they can be styled with a t-shirt for something a bit more laidback. So, they’re really quite versatile. 

Then, to add a bit of Joe Browns personality, we’ve got a zip-up funnel that’s customised and it’s got a lot more detail to it. It’s got lovely trim details and stitching at the shoulders.

I think preppy styling overall is something we’ve seen taking off in menswear this year. We’re very mindful that we’re a fashion brand that doesn’t follow the trends, but preppy styling feels like it’s something that connects with our brand and the gents who shop with us.

It’s sort of a new way for us to look at styling as well. We’re wanting to expand the brand by offering something new, but it’s really important that we don’t go outside of our brand DNA. We really want to keep true to ourselves, so this is a way for us to be able to do that.

Especially in the current climate, you never know how warm it’s gonna be or how cold, so I like to combine a shirt or a t-shirt with the knitwear, so you can layer up and layer down. 

I like getting different textures in there, and the different colours. So, I love putting either a denim jacket or a denim shirt with our knitwear because I just think it gives a really great edge to it. Our graphic tees can also sit nicely with the cardigans.

The knitwear is very patterned, that’s more the focal piece, so I try to style it so that it’s the statement piece and everything that goes with it enhances the knitwear rather than the other way around.

And that’s how our men’s knitwear comes together. From finding inspiration in the wild west to putting our own twist on the classic preppy cardigan, so much thought and attention to detail goes into our knitwear designs.

Whether you’re playing with colour and texture, or keeping things laid back with a graphic t-shirt and jeans, we hope you love our AW26 jumpers and cardigans just as much as we do.