Your collection takes inspiration from British traditional fishing industry, did this inspire you to focus on knitting as your main technique used throughout the collection?

Knitwear provides you with complete versatility and can create your own unique, I actually enrolled in a fashion design course, but educated myself in my free time by taking knitwear courses. I’ve always loved textile and been drawn to designers like Rodarte and Simon Rocha who use a lot of tactile craft techniques in their work, so it felt almost natural to go down that route. My main source of inspiration, is knitwear designer Sandra Buckland, who plays a lot with scale and volume. Initially, I intended to only have two or three knitted elements to the collection – as I made more samples, I transformed into a fully-knitted collection.

 

 

 

You focus on slow fashion, what made you so passionate about sustainability and zero waste in your collection?

I wouldn’t say it was a particularly conscious choice – growing up we were always encouraged to only buy what we really needed and upcycle something rather than buy new – so it’s a concept that has always been built into my design process. There are so many ways a designer or maker can be sustainable and there is no one right way to do it. For me, it begins with my material choices – choosing yarns and fibres that are natural and renewable, so the production of my work can have as little an impact on the environment as possible. My final year dissertation researches waste in the fashion industry, specifically post-consumer waste, and that made me consider the end life of my garments. Zero waste production is admittedly a lot easier to do when constructing your own fabric, so I made sure all my pieces were fully fashioned on the machine rather than cut and sewn – by not breaking any of the yarn, it could be unraveled and the yarn reclaimed, ready to be knitted with again, honing in on the circular design and production concept.

"Zero waste production is admittedly a lot easier to do when constructing your own fabric, so I made sure all my pieces were fully fashioned on the machine rather than cut and sewn – by not breaking any of the yarn, it could be unraveled and the yarn reclaimed, ready to be knitted with again, honing in on the circular design and production concept."