SUSTAINABLE KNITWEAR
Founded by three best friends in Lithuania, Sandra, Danute and Akvile, The Knotty Ones employs and empowers local artisans from a small country by the Baltic sea. Making sustainable knitwear and celebrating traditional Northern crafts, most of them are stay-at-home moms living in villages and small towns where jobs are extremely scarce. The knitters have a network and most of the new team members come by referral from existing talented women knitters which helps ensure knitting proficiency. They also have the opportunity to get further education in the craft, as with the more ambitious patterns, the head knitter Marina organises workshops on it.
The three founders spent their early twenties chasing trends, emptying shelves of fast fashion brands, spending money on items that were thrown away at the end of a season.
Looking back now, as big believers in shopping less, but better - their seasonless brand idea was born from the girls own need for a quality knit that had a contemporary feel, that was sustainable, but wasn’t produced in a sweatshop and was versatile enough to be worn all year round.
SLOW FASHION
Promoting slow fashion and creating timeless handmade garments that are the complete opposite of fast fashion, they don’t release collections, but instead focus on versatile individual pieces and have 3 signature knits.
The Heartbreaker Knit is my favourite. I love the chunky pattern effect, available in six colours, and made from a soft blend of supefine alpaca and Peruvian Highland wool.
I also love the Out of office cardigan.
NATURAL MATERIALS
The brand is cautious when picking suppliers and took a conscious decision to use only natural materials for all the knits, be it fair trade cotton or wool or wool/alpaca blend. The wool fibres used are untreated, which means that it is only washed and not exposed to any chemical treatment prior to the dyeing. This highlights the fibre’s natural properties, while it provides also a better shape and texture quality.
FEEL GOOD
The designers love the way that buying the pieces make their customers feel good - not only because they adore the styles, but because they know the women who made your jumper got paid fairly and worked in a safe environment.
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May 2019
By Anna Bance