Postgrad Collection

Design for sustainability can sometimes be overshadowed by the significance of materials sourcing and manufacture.  As I am predominantly a hand knitter, I am familiar with the concept that creating seamless, yet perfectly shaped and well-fitting garments is a very unique characteristic that woven fabrics do not possess.  By creating fabric with colour choice, fashioning, and stitch pattern, you are simultaneously creating the garment and as such, zero waste is created.

Photographer: Vala Dora Jonsdottir

Expanding upon intrinsic fashioning and the reversibility concept Kristen created a garment concept that can be worn in many ways, depending upon the wearer’s mood or occasion.  This sustainable design will engage the customer to ‘play’ with their clothes, creating a dialogue between themselves and their own wardrobe that indirectly creates meaning and values to garments that may otherwise be tossed aside after a few wears.

By transferring this organic attribute to machine-knitting, Kristen developed fabric samples on a 12-gauge Shima Seiki® and a 7-gauge Dubied V-bed  that are reversible (equally pleasing and interesting on either side) and thus eliminating the perception of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ sides of the fabric.