'80s Brand Behind Princess Diana's Sheep Sweater Launches a New Collection For the Festive Season

Much like in the 1980s, Princess Diana [1]'s iconic sheep jumper [2] has made an impression on winter 2021 style. Following a successful collaboration with clothing brand Rowing Blazers in October 2020, Warm & Wonderful is relaunching its dedicated shopfront online. The brand is offering its signature black-sheep print in new colors of Primrose Hill Pink and Bowie Blue to expand on the existing collection of Diana Red and Original Green. Warm & Wonderful is also adding accessories, loungewear, and homeware that make for stylish festive gifting.

Founded by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne in 1979, Warm & Wonderful first appeared at a market stall in Covent Garden when the friends were 28 years old. "We quickly became known for our sheep sweaters — wool jumpers covered with rows of little white sheep, and one proverbial 'black sheep'," the founders share on their website [3]. "As artists, we've always identified with black sheep ourselves: because of a recessive gene, black sheep are born with black wool in flocks of otherwise white sheep (in a flock of a hundred, there might only be one black sheep!). The sweater seemed to resonate among some other black sheep of the time too: David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Shelley Duvall, Penelope Keith, Anthony Andrews — and, of course, Lady Diana Spencer."

Muir revealed in an interview for The Daily Telegraph [4] that Princess Diana actually had two sheep jumpers. Although Muir isn't certain how Diana damaged the first one, she always imagined that "her enormous engagement ring [5] caught in the threads." Muir explained: "It was sent back to us with a very charming letter from her secretary, saying how much she loved it and could we mend it. We decided that rather than cobble together the damaged one, we'd make her a perfect new one, which is what we did. Hence the two."

Fancy gifting a piece of the black-sheep collection to a loved one or yourself? Keep reading for our top picks.