Welcome to Knitting Industry Creative

Welcome to Knitting Industry Creative, a new online resource for creatives in the knitting industry.

Knitting Industry Creative, will provide a fresh new look at the worldwide knitted products supply chain – from a designer’s perspective.  And like the name suggests, it will be creative, fresh, vibrant, fun, inspirational and informative. It is also underpinned by the authority and technical credibility of its parent website KnittingIndustry.com.

Knitting Industry Creative aims to reach specialists such as designers and fashion buyers – and all of those working at the creative forefront of blending science and art to produce the knitwear, hosiery, lingerie, swimwear, knitted sportswear, and knitted interiors collections of the future.

Industry creatives  – including upcoming and established designers, as well as design students – will be invited to contribute to the site, to showcase their work and to discuss their influences and inspirations. Designers and other creatives can register as subscribers and submit their own articles directly for review by the site’s editors, contributing to the creation of a global creative knits resource and community.

Show reports

Knitting Industry Creative has been live in a ‘beta version’ for a few weeks now and we have been busy visiting the industry’s leading shows.

Pitti Filati

At the end January, we travelled to Florence, for the 82nd edition of Pitti Filati, the highly-anticipated yarn event, where designers, buyers and press from over 50 countries descend upon the Fortezza da Basso to see the latest yarn collections from spinners around the world, as well as to explore the latest trends and innovations for the next season, in this case Spring/Summer 2019.

Whilst the majority of new yarn developments launch during the Autumn/Winter showcase in June, there were certainly new developments inspiring and exciting buyers and designers during this edition. You can read Charlotte’s full report here – New developments inspire designers at Pitti Filati 82.

SPINEXPO

In the first week of February, Knitting Industry Creative travelled to SPINEXPO’s first Spring/Summer showcase in Paris at the Cite de la Mode et du Design, the city’s creative space on the banks of the Seine in the 13th Arrondissement. This is the third exposition by SPINEXPO in Paris, following two successful Autumn/Winter expos in 2017 and 2016.

With her passion for fashion, and what it means in sociology, founder and organiser of SPINEXPO, Karine Van Tassel, curates 53 mill and manufacturer exhibitors, mainly from the Far East. Fairly uniquely to SPINEXPO, the focus is on creativity and trend resources. For Spring/Summer 2019, the focus was based around 5 directions for yarn, colour and knit, influenced by the notion of a ‘sensual future’. One where we focus on emotionally-driven design and product. You can read Charlotte Cameron’s full report here – SPINEXPO Paris SS19 – Inspiring Curiosity and Creativity

Exclusive interviews

Knitting Industry Creative will also be interviewing established designers in its In Conversation With series.

Rory Longdon

This month, features Charlotte Cameron’s conversation with Rory Longdon, a talented and award winning British knitwear designer now based in Italy, where he works on the ground with artisan knitwear manufacturers to create his modern, textile-led knitwear collections. Rory talks to us about his journey in – In Conversation With Rory Longdon – Refining Creative Knitwear.

AligiKnit

AligiKnit, the New York based biomaterials research group is on a mission to rescue the planet from the enormously harmful effects of the fashion industry.  The group has developed a compostable yarn from kelp, which can be knit into zero-waste, fully-fashioned garments or transformed into a textile for applications in footwear.

Among their many achievements, they’ve been keynote speakers at MAGIC, invited to exhibit at The Clinton Global Initiative, are winners of the National Geographic ‘Chasing Genius’ award and are grant recipients from the London-based RebelBio Accelerator program.

Our NYC correspondent and knitwear designer Wendy Friedman, sat down last week with co-founder and F.I.T Professor Asta Skocir to learn more about AlgiKnit’s plans for becoming leaders in sustainable manufacturing. You can read Wendy’s exclusive interview here – Interview with Asta Skocir, Co-Founder of AlgiKnit.

Kate Morris

Last month, we spoke with Kate Morris, fine-artist turned knitwear designer, who last year set up her ethically and sustainably conscious knitwear label, CROP. Kate talks to us about the creation of CROP, winning EcoChic Design Award 2017, and working with new Hong-Kong based upcycling brand, The R Collective. You can read the full interview here – In Conversation With Kate Morris, CROP – Conscious Knitwear.

Emerging designers

Knitting Industry Creative will also showcase the work of individual emerging designers, and from time to time we will visit the leading design schools to look at the work of groups of designers. Charlotte Cameron visited the RCA in London in January.

The RCA

Every January, the Royal College of Art gives a preview of the postgraduates ‘work in progress.’ We saw innovative and creative projects from students across the MA Knitwear and Knitted Textiles pathways. ‘Ones to watch’ Beth Ranson, Katharina Dubbick, Archie Dickens and Shuying Wang, talked to us about their design practice and what we can expect to see from them at the highly-anticipated graduate shows in the summer. Read the full report here – Emerging Designers: Knit in Progress at the RCA

New products and collections

New products and collections will also be showcased and this one from Studio Eva X Carola caught our eye.

Born out of a collaboration between Studio Eva X Carola, Pauline van Dongen and Santoni Innovation Center, the Radius travel backpack blends tactile knit structures with an ingenious construction that provides utilitarian qualities. Designed for the nomadic lifestyle, Radius fits all essentials for a weekend trip. The round volume and soft contours of the backpack appear to merge with undulating landscapes, while the graphic patterns made up of dots and ridged lines echoes the geometric appearance of urban architecture. Read the full story here – New seamless travel backpack harvests energy

Virtual reality

Knitting Industry Creative will also be keeping an eye on the latest digital design tools and technologies…

Leading computerized flat knitting machine manufacturer Shima Seiki, for example, has launched a virtual showroom for displaying its collections in 3DCG (3D Computer Graphics).

At the company’s 55th Anniversary celebration held in its home town of Wakayama, Japan, last November, the company held a fashion show featuring a mixture of both real and virtual models. The items were also presented in printed form as the Knit Visions look book that was distributed at the show as souvenirs.

All the looks were also available as 3D virtual models which are now collectively shown in a ‘virtual showroom’ in cyberspace. Launched at the anniversary event as VR-knit.com, the showroom is a web and mobile app that can be accessed through the website of the same web address (www.vr-knit.com). Read the full story on Knitting Industry Creative – Shima Seiki launches virtual showroom.

Finally, we would like to say a big thank you to everyone in the team here, our fantastic contributors and our highly-valued advertisers for helping make Knitting Industry Creative a reality. We look forward to working with you to create another great and much needed resource for the industry.

To have your work, product or service featured on Knitting Industry Creative please send an email to [email protected]. For advertising opportunities, please email [email protected].

Billy Hunter, Editor in Chief