The Alice Collins Jumper Edit: Eight Knits For Autumn
An Alice Collins jumper is the sort of thing you buy once and still reach for three winters later, which is why the brand stays on our rail season after season. The autumn collection has landed and it is built around three colours that work together: rich navy, blue smoke and powder pink. Sizes run 8 to 20, and almost every style came in with a full size run.
At a glance
- Four core shapes: Karlie roll neck, Etta stripe, Hannah lightweight and the Beyonce cardigan
- Colour story built on rich navy, blue smoke and powder pink, with ruby red and winter white alongside
- Sizes 8 to 20, true to size, with a fit the brand has spent three decades getting right
- Yorkshire family business, designing since 1988
- Skirts and boots in the same delivery, cut to sit with the knits
- Why we keep buying Alice Collins
- The Alice Collins jumper shapes worth knowing
- The colour story this season
- What to wear them with
- Sizing and fit
Why we keep buying Alice Collins
Alice Collins has been going since 1988, run by a Yorkshire family with a background in British textiles. That history matters less than what it means on the rail. The fit is reliable, the colours are worked out as a set rather than chosen one at a time, and the knitwear keeps its shape after a wash.
We buy it because customers come back for it. Someone who bought a cardigan two autumns ago will walk in and ask what the new colours are. We cannot say that about every brand we carry. You can see the full range on our Alice Collins collection page, or read more about the brand on the Alice Collins website.
The Alice Collins jumper shapes worth knowing
Four shapes do most of the work in this collection.
- Karlie roll neck. Sits close at the neck without feeling tight, with enough room through the body to layer under a coat.
- Etta stripe. Blue smoke against rich navy, and the one we expect to sell through first.
- Hannah. The lightest knit of the four, right for the weeks when it is not properly cold yet.
- Beyonce cardigan. Goes over a shirt in the morning and stays open all day.
If you only try one, make it the Karlie. It is the piece customers come back for a second colour of.
The colour story this season
The palette is the thing people notice first. Rich navy anchors it, blue smoke sits alongside as the softer option, and powder pink lifts both. Ruby red and winter white come in as the accents, with chocolate chip brown running through the skirts and boots.
What this means in practice is that you can buy two pieces from different parts of the collection and they will work together without you having to think about it. That is deliberate. The brand builds its seasons as a palette rather than a set of unrelated styles, and it is the reason so many customers end up with several pieces.
What to wear them with
The Maggie skirt has come back season after season because it does the job. Good length, holds its shape, and it does not cling. It comes in rich navy, burgundy and chocolate chip brown this time.
Underneath, the Mayfair boots are the easy answer. Flat, comfortable straight out of the box, and they sit under a skirt or over a jean without any fuss.
A few combinations we have been putting together in the shop:
- Karlie roll neck in blue smoke with the Maggie skirt in rich navy
- Beyonce cardigan in winter white over a Kim shirt, with jeans
- Hannah in raspberry sorbet with the chocolate chip Mayfair boots
Sizing and fit
Alice Collins runs true to size, which is not something we say lightly. The 8 to 20 range is genuinely graded rather than scaled up from a small block, so the proportions hold at the larger end.
If you are between sizes, take the smaller one in the knitwear and the larger in the skirts. That is what we tend to advise in the shop, and it holds for most people. The rest of our knitwear collection is worth a look at the same time.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I buy Alice Collins in the UK?
We stock Alice Collins at Experience Boutique on Fleet High Street in Hampshire, and the collection is on our website too. We are an independent boutique and we have carried the brand for years, which means we buy the styles we know our customers will actually wear rather than taking the whole range. If you would rather try before you buy, the current season is on the rail in the shop and we are happy to talk sizes with you.
Does Alice Collins knitwear come up true to size?
Yes, in our experience it does. The 8 to 20 range is properly graded rather than scaled up from a small block, so the proportions hold at the larger end. If you are between two sizes we would suggest taking the smaller one in the jumpers and cardigans, and the larger one in the skirts. The knitwear has a little give in it and settles after the first wear, whereas the skirts are cut closer to the body.
Which Alice Collins jumper should I buy first?
The Karlie roll neck, most seasons. It sits close at the neck without feeling restrictive and has enough room through the body to layer under a coat, which makes it the one people wear from October through to March. The Etta stripe usually sells through first, because there is only ever one stripe in a season. If you are buying your first Alice Collins piece, the Karlie is the safe place to start.
How should I wash Alice Collins knitwear?
Follow the care label on the garment, which is the only reliable guide. As a general rule we would suggest a cool wash on a wool or delicates cycle, and drying flat rather than hanging, which is what stops a jumper dropping at the shoulders over time. The knitwear holds its shape well, and most of the pieces that come back into the shop looking good years later have been treated that way.
Is Alice Collins still trading?
Yes. Alice Collins is an independent Yorkshire brand that has been designing womenswear since 1988, and it still produces two main collections a year. We take a delivery each season and the autumn range arrived with us in full. If you have searched for the brand and found conflicting information, go direct to a stockist rather than a marketplace listing, since resellers sometimes keep old pages live long after the stock has gone.
Written by Emma Molyneux
Emma founded Experience Boutique on Fleet High Street in 1996 and has spent three decades buying for it. She writes about the brands the shop carries and how the pieces actually wear.
