An international fashion research project exploring the 'craft of use'

Flexible Thinking

Wearing the same piece but with with a fluid attitude of openness and flexibility can find novelty in new places. The garment itself stays the same, but the rules and roles of wearing it are re-interpreted. Use is intensified; resources are saved; individuality is reclaimed.

Guernsey Knit

“My grandma just gave me this [pullover] – hand-knitted Guernsey which she made for me, took her a year and a half. It’s got my initials in the back and she’s not got great eye-sight so knitting fine in dark blue is really difficult so it’s a labour of love. And we, kind of, talked about what the design was going to be like... And you’d have a different pattern on the yolk [compared with the main body of the jumper] and you’d have a different pattern for your village so you were washed over board on your ship and you swept up on a beach they’d know where to send your body back. This is how they’d tell, the different patterns. And it’s made to be reversible so that you won’t wear these out and you have the pattern at the top because the bottoms one wears through and that can be quickly re-knitted in plain knit but the tops are the complicated bit..."


London - March 2011
Photograph by Kerry Dean