Of recent years, I have been rather astonished with the way knitwear has really come into its own and though designers are carving out niches for themselves to shed away the confines of knitwear, it is still an artisanal craft.  Tim Ryan, who is originally from Ireland and is now based in London, is one of those who are doing things within the genre of knitwear that isn't of the norm yet the fundamentals of the craft of kntiwear are still being upheld with his 12 years of self-taught knitting experience (he was previously in sculpture... natural progression really...).

"People often they have a very fixed idea of what knitwear is or isn't. The prevailing idea being that it is some kind of secondary thing, something other.  We think of knitwear as a viable whole-wardrobe solution, real clothes, and this is reflected in the fact that we do not stick to the traditional knitwear standards but also produce a lot of dresses and evening pieces and are really not very into 'knitwear' as a concept. We only produce knits but we never think of them as such."

I have a particular fascination and curiosity with one-piece cutting.  i.e. using as few pattern pieces as possible and given the complex nature of knitting, calculating the number of stitches, it seems like a heady task that Ryan creates pieces that are often seamless.

"Construction and shape are the primary interests throughout the collections, we tend to work alot with the fact that garments can be constructed in pattern pieces larger than a full circle (the biggest single piece that can be cut from fabric without seaming is a single circle) and also with integral shaping, all things that cannot be done in flat pattern making, this lends itself to sometimes seamless or single seamed spiral pieces all constructed from a single thread."

His spring summer collection is inspired by a 1970's reinterpretation of the Art Deco period.  I have a love hate relationship with Lurex yet here, Ryan has added lines, pleating and detailing that is ever so prominent that it adds a much needed depth to a material that can often be used in an attrocious manner.  The shapes dance between shimmying flappers and disco queens and so as the two decades collide, we end up with something that isn't at all cliched.  With a great deal of respect for knitwear as a craft (but not as a clothing genre thank god....), Ryan only sources the finest cashmeres from Scotland and Italy and all pieces are made in Europe.  More designers of the likes of Tim Ryan and perhaps we can stop having notions of what 'knitwear' is supposed to be as it seems to be me that it doesn't have any limitations whatsoever. 

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