W hen high fashion was
W hen high fashion was all about structured tailoring and showy evening wear, knitting was the poor relation, just for weekend style and casual shopping. Cashmere was expensive but classic, mainly plain designs in safe colours – an investment to wear for years until the moths got it – while the intricate pieces that were the product of hand knitting were the preserve of isolated communities making traditional patterns. Now, in a world that has changed faster than anyone could have imagined, the best knitwear is highly prized. It appears on grand catwalks and refined versions of hand knits from remote places are the grail. This is not entirely new, or at least it had a precursor. Remember the sweater that was actress Sofie Gråbøl’s signature workwear in Danish TV’s The Killing, almost a decade ago? It revitalised Fair Isle’s knit industry and proved that sweaters are not just for dog walking. From above left: Connolly’s chunky Circuit sweater, made with a cashmeremerino blend; a look by Inis Meáin, on the Aran Islands; Simone Rocha layers white and ivory shades in its accessories and cable-knit sweaters; metallic yarns and rounded shapes feature in JW Anderson’s latest pieces More recently, craft knitting has become elevated as consumers seek sustainability, authenticity and artisan work with centuries of tradition. But there’s more to it than that: today’s knitwear successes also entail modern design elements, upgraded yarns, new techniques and state-of-the-art machines. Knitwear is a rare beneficiary of our newly anxious lifestyle; it is fashion’s balm for the soul, supplying luxury comfort when home life rules. It is also uniquely versatile – a sweater can cocoon you on a country walk, brighten up a Zoom meeting or be thrown over a silk dress for a socially distanced event, making it the one item to which shopping guilt does not apply. There are two distinct threads (or yarns, perhaps) to this knitting tale. Small, individual collections are based on those isolated, artisan communities but interpreted in a highly sophisticated, modern style. Others start from the luxury standpoint, absorbing artisan and handworked details to make the rarefied, ultra-luxe levels that big brands feature as PHOTO © CONOLLY 56 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Knitwear is a rare beneficiary of our newly anxious lifestyle; it is fashion’s balm for the soul, supplying luxury comfort when home life rules PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: © INIS MEÁIN, MONICA FEUDI, © SIMONE ROCHA showpieces. Either way, the impetus often comes from a visionary who sees possibilities first, especially when on the fringes of fashion. It doesn’t get much more fringe than the Aran Isles, far in the Atlantic beyond the west of Ireland, where the Inis Meáin Knitting Company (inismeain.ie) was started in the mid 1970s by Tarlach de Blácam, who came to study Irish language and traditions there, and his wife, who was born on the island. As much social project as commercial venture, it aimed to help stem the tide of youthful emigration, and to keep alive the patterns and techniques of hand knitting passed down from mother to daughter there for centuries. De Blácam found beauty both in the simpler-patterned dark sweaters that the islanders use for workwear and the deeply textured, complex patterns that were worn for formal occasions, displaying each knitter’s unique designs – the origin of the much-copied Aran fisherman’s sweater. He modernised them for wider appeal and opened a small factory with highly technical machines, ordered a variety of fine yarns including cashmere and alpaca, and trained youngsters from knitting families, creating garments that involved complex stitchwork and are pieced together by hand. Now there is a wide range of elegant styles for men and women that sell worldwide but are each produced in small numbers and always reference the rich landscape colours and traditional designs of the island. Equally fringe in remoteness, thousands of kilometres to the east, is Outer Mongolia, where Mandkhai Jargalsaikhan’s father was the first private entrepreneur to buy a state-owned cashmere factory after the fall of communism. The country produces some of the world’s best cashmere – much sent straight to Italy or Scotland for processing once the herders have been tracked down in the vast, empty steppes – but Mandkhai’s (mandkhai.com) family had other ideas. They upgraded the factory with German and Japanese equipment while she trained in fashion in London, starting her eponymous brand, Mandkhai, six years ago. “I wanted the collection to be ‘goat to garment’ so I could guarantee our excellent quality throughout,” she says. › CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 57
