The 59.99-Euro Mango Cardigan Miguel Bernardeau Wore in London: the Button-Up Sweater Was Made Famous by a British Earl in the Crimean War

On 9 October, at the screening of the film La bola negra at BAFTA in London, Spanish actor Miguel Bernardeau showed up in a simple cardigan. Fashion editors tracked it down fast: Mango's ESSENTIALS line, fine wool, straight cut, round neckline, black buttons, 59.99 euros. The forecast is that it will sell out.

The script is familiar. Earlier this year Jacob Elordi's Mango jacket went viral, and now the fashion media are looking for a Spanish counterpart. The mechanism never changes: a famous face, a mass-market brand, a price under a hundred euros - and the sales take care of themselves.

So what is a cardigan, anyway? It takes its name from James Thomas Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan, a British general in the Crimean War. He popularised the button-up wool jacket so that soldiers could put it on without disturbing their uniform and without getting dishevelled. Function came first, and style followed later.

Style arrived with Coco Chanel in the 1920s: she cut a sweater down the middle, added buttons and turned a men's military garment into a women's one. From the battlefield to Paris, from Paris to every wardrobe - few pieces of clothing have travelled that far without fundamentally changing.

How to wear it today is shown by three women from the fashion scene. Alex Cooper wears a navy cardigan over a grey bomber jacket, with a mini skirt. Bavita Mandava wears it unbuttoned over a top, with wide-leg jeans. Claire Rose buttons it all the way up, like a sweater, and pairs it with black barrel-leg trousers.

The cardigan is proof that some of the best clothes were dreamed up by someone with a practical problem, not by a designer chasing a trend. The fashion industry then just repackages them, every season with a new face. Do you really need this exact one from Mango - or is there already one in your wardrobe, just waiting?