Yesterday we looked at Azzedine Alaïa's retrospective mentioning the main yarn supplier he has been working with for decades, Lineapiù. Let's continue the thread for another day and look at the Italian company's Autumn/Winter 2014-15 yarn collection, showcased during Pitti Filati in July.
For the occasion the company opted to display the garments made with its yarns in an exhibition-like environment with a few interesting props such as gigantic necklaces made with polystyrene pearls covered in knitted samples and meteor-like plastic human heads covered in glittery swatches.
The necklaces framed the designs on display, creating a plesant effect and perfectly presenting a collection markd by modernity and optimism.
Talking about optimism in financially complex times is bold and brave, yet Lineapiù is interpreting the concept from a creative point of view, as a force that can inspire us to blend different disciplines - such as art and fashion or science/technology and crafts - together and come up with innovative structures and stitches for knitwear pieces that show off the quality of fibres and blends at their best.
Research and innovation keep on being the keywords of the collection. Softness, lightness, soothing colours, new shapes and silhouettes for extremely modern, elegant and contemporary garments with great functionality are other important points for the next season. So let's take a look at the new yarn collection.
The first one we're going to analyse is Pollock (50% Extra Fine Merino Wool; 21% Angora; 25% Polyamide; 2% Elastane; 2% Polyester), a lightweight tweed yarn that incorporates tiny colourful dots and that pays homage in its name to the American painter. Pollock was matched with another yarn, Angel (79% Rayon; 21% Polyester) in an Alaïa-inspired mini-dress.
Angel was employed to form the pleated rigid structure of the dress, while Pollock was used for the internal part of the pleats that opened to reveal a subtle shower of colourful confetti.
The final effect was simply astonishing as the dress looked like a perfect structure, elegant, simple, subtle and, yes, timeless.
This yarn was also employed to create ribbed skirts matched with fluffy pink jumpers in mohair and polyammide (yarns: Alfie and Camelot).
There were further garments that called to mind Alaïa's style (Lineapiù is well known for feminine yarns employed for second-skin looks such as Momo from the A/W 2014-15): a long evening dress in pale pink Charlize yarn (57% Rayon; 23% Polyamide; 20% Polyester); a pink bra and mini-skirt employing blends of mohair and polyamide (yarns: Copper, Alfie, Camelot Melange).
Among the second-skin dresses on display there were also a couple that could have been adapted as daywear: a green and black design made with Luxor (53% Rayon and 47% Polyamide) and Taiga (68% Alpaca Baby, 8% Extra Fine Merino Wool, 19% Polyamide, 5% Elastane) yarns, and a mini dress in a golden shade (yarn: Giselle - 63% Rayon; 37% Polyamide).
The new collection also features a selection of dedicated yarns for softer/harder pieces and for outerwear.
Riso (76% Extra Fine Merino Wool; 23% Polyamide, 1% Elastane) is a soft and light yarn with an impalpable casentino effect ideal for original and made-to-measure knitwear as showcased in a white dress also employing Camelot Melange (58% Superkid Mohair; 6% Wool; 36% Polyamide), while Roxy (35% Superkid Mohair; 34% Extra Fine Merino Wool; 25% Polyamide; 6% Elastiane) combines mohair with metal sequins and it is therefore indicated for evening pieces.
Biba (100% Polyamide), is ideal for knitted narrow corduroy effects in jumpers and dresses, especially when mixed with Gulliver (53% Extra Fine Merino; 47% Polyamide).
Designers interested in structures should instead opt for Felt (57% Extra Fine Merino Wool, 25% Angora, 17% Polyamide, 1% Elastane), employed at its best in a dress that integrated a shoulder warmer, for Tecno, a yarn that creates a neoprene effect in knits, or Tao, a stretchy viscose with longhair mohair and a unique sheen.
For felted effects, it should instead be advisable to opt for Lima, a blend of merino wool, baby alpaca, viscose, and polyamide.
Among the yarns for outerwear pieces there are blends of merino wool and baby camel (Cameau) or superkid mohair and merino wool (Visone), extremely soft Tibetan yak fibre (Yak), alpaca and polyamide (Sherpa) or merino wool and polyamide (Sugar).
Blends of polyacrylic fibres, mohair, merino wool and alpaca (Incas Melange, Gobi, Aspen, Mohalpa, Vip, Must, oregon and Muflone) can instead be employed to create surface effects and voluminous pieces.
The following images show Rory Longdon's designs made with Lineapiù's Filclass yarns for example.
The Knitwear Designer has been working since 2011 as a Consultant for the Max Mara Fashion Group, this is therefore not the first collaboration with an Italian company.
Longdon mainly creates womens knitwear with a highly creative approach, balanced with an excellent technical understanding and, as these pieces show, he has also got a particular interest in densely knitted pieces with lots of details.
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