Reknitting - Power of Recycle & Creativity

In the lecture of week 28, Pip Jenkins, the design director of John Smedley, told some infromation about how garments are made in a knitwear industry that market level is quite high. Inspired by that, I'm wondering - how high-end knitwear market can be different after 20 years in sustainable aspects?

Remaking Techniques

As Pip Jenkins said, knitwears produced by John Smedley are high in quality - durable, not easily shrink, even with these propertise, the company offer repair services for those knitwears, in order to reduce waste. The process of remaking focus on knitting not only a way to reduce waste, to knitters, it is also for showing their creativity. According to Margaret Murray and Jane Koster wrote in their book Complete Home Knitting Illustrated, around 1940s, women always remake old garments pieces into amazing whole-new clothes to show their own creativity and fashion style. When time goes by, the techniques of clothes remaking left by thoese pioneers and improved by followers, it has became a style -- create old ones to new.

Intructions of join two piece of knitting together. Instagram@amytwiggerh

From Durability To New Fashion

Knitwear fixing is for people to save resources during earlier ages when their living standards are low. During the period of financial hardship, when a child's pants got a hole at knee, it will definitely be patched up. However, when the pants are no longer suitable be worn, something interesting would happen -- some people will remake them with old fabric scraps to make a shirt, or even turn them into children's puppets. Some remakers will add their small clever ideas into repaired garments, when I was about 7, love running wildly with my friends but fall into ground frequently, so my pants always got holes on knees or bottom. My mother will patch up the holes with lovely patches of cartoon characters, after I back to school, my friends saw patches on my pants and ask where I bought the pants, I will answer proudly: "My mother repair the torn pants for me with these patches!"

Future Thinking

As reknitting become fashion, how will it be different 20 years later?