Unravel: Knitwear in Fashion

The changing status of knitwear in high fashion is a fascinating history in which the threads of socio-cultural revolutions and fashion design are closley knit together. By unravelling its ups and downs, in different places and eras, this book starts to shed a light on the origins of our current perspective on knitwear. Due to knitwear's associations with hobby culture, femininity and crafts, it is too often overlooked that it can also be something highly fashionable, experimental and a daring choice for fashion designers. Knitwear's contemporary comeback is in fact a vogue for something that never really disappeared. Body hugging cling, jersey sportswear, raw knits, sculptural volumes, lace-like body nets... the possibilities of knitting make it an endless source of inspiration for fashion designers. This book starts to tug at the yarn of knitwear's hidden history, investigating different production methods, social histories and the aesthetic (r)evolutions of knitwear in fashion. With topics ranging from grandad chic to utilitarian jumpers, from fashionable stockings to 3D knits, the everlasting appeal of twinsets and the formless in fashion... this book takes a closer look at something we all own but that is often simply taken for granted: knitwear. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Fashion Museum in Antwerp. Text in English and Dutch. Emmanuelle Dirix works at the Winchester College and teaches costume history at the fashion department of the Antwerp Academy.