Welcome Back Geometric George

Meet Geometric George! Last seen in sportswear in the 1990’s, the colourful character adorned our most iconic jumpers and was worn by golfing legends on the fairways along with the coolest kids in the neighbourhood.

He was borne, like many great ideas, as a happy accident.

In the 1980’s an argyle knitting machine in the factory in Scotland was tasked with creating a new pattern – using straight lines or diamonds, but without Argyle.

Doreen Kean, Pringle’s then Design Director, and later of ‘Queene and Belle’ knitwear takes up the story:
‘We began by deconstructing the traditional argyle grid by inverting, halving and quartering the famous diamond. He didn’t immediately appear fully formed. The 1980’s were seeing new graphic trends from computer games such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man which were angular in style. I remember many attempts but eventually he slipped from the knitting machine echoing the famous diamond in every limb.

We immediately saw that his trousers looked like plus fours making him an obvious golfer and the addition of a club and ball completed the look.

George was initially to be called Geometric Jim, a take on the Scottish name James, but looking at George, my snoozing spaniel by the fire one evening, I spotted the perfect name’.

Nick Faldo famously went on to win the Masters in 1990 wearing Geometric George and catapulted the figure to fame. 

The rest is history as they say, and at one point Pringle was manufacturing over 90,000 jumpers sporting Geometric George each week. 

Taking us down this memory lane, Gaby Day, Pringle’s Head of Design has now reimagined Geometric George in a modern unisex capsule featuring both the original single Geometric George figure as well as a multi George interpretation. Teal, Heather Pink, Mustard and Red provide a dash of original 90s colours alongside the perennials of Navy and Denim. 

A modern version of the block stripe and vee jumper further underpin the bold vibe of the era. A range of matching poloshirts allow for easy mixing and rounds off the capsule.