Stylish Knits: Portland Fashion Week 2011: Imperial Yarn

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Portland Fashion Week 2011: Imperial Yarn

At the beginning of this year I met Anna Cohen, internationally recognized sustainable designer and creative director of Imperial Yarns. She had paired with Imperial Stock Ranch to create her first in-house hand knitwear collection of patterns called The Imperial Yarn Knit Collection. At the time I met her, she was looking for hand knitwear designers to work as a technical designer/interpreter for her collection of hand knit patterns for Fall 2011.

This was my very first time to work with a fashion designer; and I was very excited about the opportunity. Anna had built and led successful apparel company from 2005 - 2008, making sustainability her priority in her designs. Working with Anna has been a great experience for me. The process of bringing her designs to life was slightly different from what I have done in the past; and it had taught me a lot. To work on this collection for Anna, among other things, had taught me about sustainability in the US; something I really have not thought about much before. Moreover, Anna's designs are beautiful, fresh with nice silhouettes and she's a pleasure to work with. All the designs in the collection are worked in yarns of Imperial Yarn that are unique, soft and very comfortable to knit with. The yarn is produced by Imperial Stock Ranch, a 140-year-old, family-owned ranch based in Shaniko in central Oregon, that is known for its mindful and sustainable ranching and land-management practices.

I have worked on three designs for the Fall 2011 The Imperial Yarn Knit collection and two designs for the Spring 2012 collection (pictured below). These designs are available in knit-it-yourself kits that are made 100% in the USA including the pattern and Imperial Stock Ranch's wool.

This Imperial Yarn Knit Collection was presented at the Portland Fashion Week 2011 this month. You can see the whole collection on the runway below.