Craft gets cool

KNITTING:Stitching has found its time, writes DEIRDRE MCQUILLAN

AS A NATION with a long and potent knitwear tradition, Ireland occasionally throws up a constellation of crafty stars. Lainey Keogh showed the way in the 1990s, turning a pastime into a lucrative fashion career, while others, such as John Rocha, continue to experiment with crochet and craft embellishment on leather and tweed.

Our current crop of needle-wielding creatives include Heather Finn, who has an unmatched sense of colour; Lisa Shawgi who is mastering intricate stitchery with linear shapes for tunics and cocoon wraps; and Edmund McNulty, who exports to Japan and whose refined hoodies have become best-sellers.

In London, the award-winning, Tipperary-born Tim Ryan, gives a rock-star touch to elaborate chevron-fringed tops handmade with vintage yarns.

Electronic Sheep’s zany patterned capes, caps and shrugs have an arty look that’s all their own. Sphere One by Lucy Downes specialises in elegant cashmere coats and dresses in subtle tones – the new collection glistening with metallic yarns – while Sian Jacobs works confidently in cashmere with a Nepalese team producing playful, racer-back knits and chunky cardis in dusty and jewel colours.

Ireland continues to produce exciting knits in novel and sophisticated yarns, though few designers have international reputations. On the outer edge of Europe, Inis Meáin Knitting Company supplies chic boutiques in Paris, Tokyo and London, as well as Barneys and Bloomingdales in New York, with its luxurious modern takes on traditional knits.

On the runways of London and New York, handcraft is enjoying a revival with Christopher Kane, House of Holland and Proenza Schouler ramping up the fashion volume with their quirky restyling of those 1970s multi-coloured crochet blankets. At home in Kerry, Irish knitwear talent Dee Collier is making sexy wraps, colourful geansaís and even crocheting tweed on her talented needles. There’ll be more yarns to tell at Showcase Ireland, opening at the RDS on Sunday, January 22nd.