Projects
Permissive Perishability
Materials: PVA, cotton
Year: 2022
The case study for the seemingly undiscovered ideas of preprogrammed fading comes from the most recognised fabric in the world - denim. Distressed denim aesthetic is so embedded in the collective memory of many of us that we do not question it. It is self-evident.
So, what if a sweater could deceive your instinctive, tacit recognition into thinking it's denim? Is it then “allowed” to be ripped? Once again, water soluble PVA yarn makes the sweaters accessible to being moulded by life.
There are two distinct structures– one for sweat and one for rain – to play with “dirty” and “clean” humidity. Contrary to sweat, rain is the ultimate emblem of purity and new beginnings. Thus, rain causes the clothing to become clean, whilst the sweat causes them to become dirty.
Designed by sweat or rain, ugly-pretty denim sweaters – are they in the end beautiful or are they ugly, dirty or clean, broken or whole?
Photos: Liisa Kanemägi, Kirke Talu
Sweaty Sweaters
Materials: PVA, wool, hemp
Year: 2021
Dirty and broken items have a lot in common. Both represent deviations from their ideal state. Dirty things need to be cleaned, and broken things need to be repaired. Garments that cast doubt on these two concepts seek to de-emphasize their obviousness – to rethink them.
These blain sweaters represent a rather anonymous wardrobe basic, something we all have in our closets. What if I can use the sweaters to create a physical "sweat diary" of a 21st-century city dweller, prompting the body-mind to continue making the sweaters, thereby transforming them from anonymous to personal? There is sweat from sauna, working out and eating spicy Asian food.
The wearing process becomes a study in which emotion, action, time, environment, and body – in addition to the material and technique – are all intervening. Intuitive design is being taken to a new level when dynamism of living is in charge. And while the wearer continues to make - it is unconscious, yet conscious as putting your ego on the back burner is not only difficult, but also unnecessary. One simply has to allow things to happen – making develops into growing. Perhaps by wearing these garments, you can get excited about determining which situations cause you to sweat the most aesthetically?
Photos: Liisa Kanemägi, Marin Sild, Kirke Talu
broken/
whole?
Materials: Mixed
Year: 2020 - ongoing
Materials are always in motion - longing to run amok. With the help of the water soluble PVA thread, knitted loops get loose in contact with water, leaving behind a world of structure that is both regulated and random. Opening up a garment to unravelling removes the focus from the ideal state and “finished” or "broken" loses its significance. Sweater obtains a state of becoming instead. The piece can continue to live on its own, gradually reverting to yarn.
Photos: Liisa Kanemägi, Marin Sild, Kirke Talu
Gnidry
Materials: Mixed
Year: 2020 - ongoing
Gnidry turns the yarn floats in knitting from something impractical to something exciting. By shifting the yarn floats, the shape of the garment changes. They can make a two dimensional piece three dimensional. Where they form, an opening is created in the fabric. Pattern cutting turns into a whole new game. They bring out the beauty of the material, showing it in two states - in an already knit pattern, and in a raw yarn.
Photos: Liisa Kanemägi, Marin Sild, Kertin Vasser, Sigrid Osa, Paweł Orynicz
Illustrations: Liisa Kanemägi
Researching Form in Knitwear
Materials: Wool
Year: 2017
The study explores the rules and requirements for garments typical of the Western world in order to escape and oppose them. I define the form through yarn floats rather than abstract silhouettes or pattern cutting rules by knitting the form and material in a single process. Form is an emergent rather than imposed.
