Mike Kerrigan has a trick for parties. He’s a lawyer in Charlotte, N.C., and he doesn’t want to argue politics with a stranger over the potato salad. So he wears a sweater. It’s the shawl-collared Pendleton Westerley, the cardigan Jeff Bridges wears as The Dude in The Big Lebowski.
Kerrigan explained the method in Monday’s Journal. He calls it signaling theory. Picture a party of 30. He’d rather skip the heavy talk and find the guests who feel the same. The trouble is he can’t tell who they are. The sweater sorts the room for him. Most guests see an old cardigan. The fans of the film see a signal, and they walk over. Those are his people. He borrows a line from Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, who said his band was like licorice. Not everyone likes licorice. The people who do really like it. “When I wear it to parties, I bat 1.000,” Kerrigan writes.
Pendleton introduced the Westerley in 1974. It took 24 years, and the Coen brothers’ 1998 film, to make it famous. Kerrigan says the method isn’t a gimmick. He cites C.S. Lewis, who wrote that friendship begins the moment one person tells another, in effect, you too, I thought I was the only one. So when a guest glances at the host’s rug and says it really ties the room together, that’s the Lewis moment.
Cost per wear
Here’s the money part, and it’s the fun part. A sweater that wins you a friend at every party is the best deal in the closet. Most closets hold the opposite. Clothes bought for one event, worn once and quietly retired. The math is simple. Divide the price by the nights you’ll wear it. A piece you love and wear for years costs almost nothing a night. A piece you bought because it was on sale costs its whole price the one night you wear it. Kerrigan’s cardigan has a second job too. Making friends gets harder with age, and the sweater does the hard part. It starts the conversation for him.
Our read
This is Cash Flow (M5) with a Behavioral bonus. The planning point is buy once and buy well. The best purchases in a closet are the ones you reach for without thinking, year after year. Price them by the wear instead of the tag. A cardigan that goes to every party for a decade, and wins a friend at each one, pays for itself in ways no spreadsheet tracks. The habit to copy is the one behind the purchase. He didn’t buy a sweater to look rich. He bought one piece that says who he is and lets the right people find him. That’s a good filter for closets, and for people. No ticker here. Pendleton is a private company. Our verdict is hold, as in hold onto the piece you love.
The concrete thing in your plan is the clothing line in the yearly budget, and what it buys. Most people spend it on many things they wear once. Try the reverse. Pick one piece you’d wear for years, and let it cost more. This week, open the closet and count what you haven’t worn in a year. That’s the number to spend less on next year, and it’s worth a line at your next review. Loneliness is a real retirement risk too, so a conversation piece earns its keep twice. Fewer, better and worn often is the plan. A good umbrella goes out with you every day. So does a good sweater.