Friday, May 13, 2011
Marion Foale Knitting Collection 1
You can imagine my excitement when I learned that one of my all-time favourite knitwear designers had issued a collection of her patterns: Marion Foale.
Marion Foale has been a long-time fixture on the British fashion scene and I have followed her work avidly for many years. She is not so well-known in North America since her knitting patterns have not been widely published before now. You could catch a few on them in Rowan magazine from time to time.
In this collection, Marion portrays all the elements of why she is a master: timeless, classic silhouettes, fine tailoring, attention to detail, and a sense of style that is uniquely hers. You can see what I mean here is this exquisitely rendered jacket:
She tends to use familiar stitch patterns and relies on the quality of her yarn and the fine execution of the design itself to make hers stand out above the crowd.
Even here, in a lavish shawl with a ruffled edge, she shows restraint in the combination of stitch pattern and design. Never over-doing it, allowing the yarn to speak.
Marion Foale is the designer's designer. Her design elements are always subtle, refined, classic. A lot of thought goes into each one of her designs. Yet they look effortless. And what's more, anyone can wear them. Her work is fashion-concious and stylish, but classic at the same time.
One of the things that makes this first collection particularly valuable is her inclusion of her sketches together with the patterns. One gets the chance to follow her thinking and see how she makes her design decisions. Intriguing and enlightening.
I am already looking forward to her next collection.
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