Visual feast time!
So I’ve just found a new favorite designer: crochet monster Katie Jones! This girl. She is wasting absolutely no time! She basically just graduated from Central St. Martins, and has already worked with John Galliano in Paris, Diane Von Furstenberg in New York, and Romance was Born in Australia. She has also worked with Mark Fast for years. Katie has also won the UK Hand Knitting Association Knitted Textile Award (in 2011), and recently showed a collection at Brighton Fashion Week.
Taught by both her grandmothers to crochet and knit (and encouraged by her mother to keep it up), Katie uses many of the traditional English craft techniques to create her elaborate, eye-popping creations. She is greatly inspired by—and draws from—native and tribal textiles, as well as the different landscapes/architecture/traditional dress/art and crafts of various cultures. For example, Katie’s recent work has incorporated elements from Salvation Mountain in Niland, California, the modern tribes of Tanna, and the costumes documented by photographer Phyllis Galembo.
Now based in London, Katie is succeeding in expanding the boundaries of hand-crafted pieces into high fashion. Some of the techniques she uses includes seamless 3-D crochet, Fair Isle, cross stitch embroidery, beading, macramé, industrial knit, and afghan crochet. She’s all about employing traditional English craft techniques to create her bold, intricate, high-fashion handcrafted designs
“Who knows what the future brings,” Katie says. “The process is very labor-intensive, but it’s a labor of love.”