Earl of Cardigan blah blah blah 19th century snooze… We’ll skip the history lesson and just tell you that cardigans are back. Thank the oversized silhouettes of designer Raf Simons, or A$AP Rocky in Gucci, or the ghost of Kurt Cobain, whose grungy, thrifted aesthetic has circled back into fashion.

Despite the endorsement of such swag lords, cardigans still scare many men compared to other once-dodgy jumper styles like roll necks or cable knits. So we’ve compiled some 21st-century styling moves that will help you avoid giving off granddad vibes. Like, say, taking the empty Werther’s Originals wrappers out of your pockets.

This is not your dad’s guide to how to wear a cardigan. And certainly not his dad’s. Follow these tips to smell more like teen spirit than Old Spice. Or mothballs.

Grown-Up Grunge

Without Kurt Cobain’s intervention, it would be very difficult to look rebellious in a cardigan. Not that it was intentional on his part – he didn’t much care about clothes and his look was more the product of the thrift stores that kept Seattle’s grunge kids warm.

Today, assuming you don’t want to look like you’re sleeping in your drummer’s mother’s basement, the look (partly adopted by hip-hop’s best dressed men) is cleaner and tidier. Keep Cobain’s long-line cardigan and look for some additional interest – mottled wool, a ribbed texture or pared-back pattern. Then wear it over a plain tee or cotton shirt. Down below, wider-leg denim or some cropped trousers update the look, but if you want to keep your skinny jeans, well, never mind.

Normcore Creative

There’s a specific kind of creative person who advertises their creativity by wearing something that doesn’t look very creative at all. It’s quite meta. If you’re that person, a simple merino cardigan could be a cornerstone of your wardrobe. The look in question is neat, a little bit grandad, a little bit mid-century, with not much in the way of texture and certainly no patterns.