Winni Lok

[Buckwheat]

Fashion & Style: A wicked way with wool
Independent, The (London), Sep 2, 2004 by Cat Callender

It's not every day that you pitch up at a designer's studio to find Ashton Kutcher reclining in a semi-clad state. But then, Winni Lok is not your average fashion designer. For starters, she's a knitwear designer, which makes the experience of being talked through what she calls the "top totty corner" of her studio, a little bizarre. Whereas one might expect woven wall-hangings to grace such a space, Lok's is papered instead with the aforementioned moody centrefold of Kutcher; an equally steamy pin-up of Anthony Kiedis from The Red Hot Chili Peppers; a snap of a boy whom Lok snogged during Paris Fashion Week; and a collage of shots of other anonymous male eye-candy.

"Once people find out that I make knitwear, they expect me to be all homespun, which I'm so not," chuckles the 32-year-old, whose name reflects her origins (her parents are Chinese, but Lok was born in Hereford). "I've never wanted to design twinsets or Aran jumpers. For me, it is about exploring the medium of knitting and seeing how far I can run with it."

Which is precisely what the Central Saint Martins MA graduate has been doing for the past four years. Having created deconstructed punk- style knits of the bleach-splattered, tattered and torn variety; asymmetric, laddered mohair tunics; holey wrap cardigans with sequin cables snaking up the spine; and jumpers shot through with neon pink streaks and decorated with fronds of untwisted, undyed wool, her latest winter collection (her ninth to date), sees Lok extend her vision to incorporate menswear knits, too.

What is more, if the current glut of chunky, deconstructed knitwear on the high street is anything to go by, Lok's groundbreaking signature style would appear to have caused an influential ripple effect. But why makeover the knit-one-pearl-one world? "It seemed to be the medium with which I would be the least constrained," says the diminutive Lok. "Knitting allows me not just to create the fabric but also to build a silhouette into the knit. So, if I thought really hard about it, I could make a jacket out of one piece of knitted fabric."

Given that you can count those designers who occasionally push the boundaries of knitwear - Rick Owens, Balenciaga, Yohji Yamamoto, Pierrot - on one hand, you could say that it's a craft that's crying out for a rethink. Which is where Lok fits in. Thanks to her fashion background - after graduating, she consulted for Hussein Chalayan and, more recently, Montana, and spent three years as assistant manager at Yohji Yamamoto's Conduit Street store in London (whose challenging aesthetic gave her the courage to launch her own label) - Lok's sophisticated silhouettes and complex constructed pieces are spearheading just such a revamp.

Indeed, by deconstructing, shredding and ageing the very fabric of her knits, hacking off sleeves, mixing her yarns, employing the type of cut- and-sew techniques usually associated with dressmaking, and avoiding at all costs any classic knitwear shapes, she has elevated the medium way beyond its craft roots.

"Winni has totally pushed the boundaries of knitwear, broken all the rules, made up her own rules, and then gone on to break even those. It might not sound much on paper, but for a knitwear designer to play around with volume and proportion like a fashion designer is really a big deal," says Kit Li-Perry, buying manager for women's contemporary fashion at Selfridges, who has been buying Lok's collection for the store from the very beginning. "Although her creations fall under the knitwear category, you really can't think of them as `knits'. Missoni creates fabulous, eccentrically coloured knits, but they are still knitwear in the conventional sense, whereas Winni really challenges what a jumper is."

All of which is not bad for a girl who can't even read a knitting pattern, and whose collections organically unravel from their starting point: a pair of knitting needles and a ball of wool. "Each range is really cathartic. I pick up some needles, start knitting and see where it takes me. I have the yarn, the colour and the basic measurements to which the jumper needs to adhere in order to fit, and that's it," explains Lok of an approach that includes embracing the unplanned mistakes that she makes along the way. "Ah, but I never call them mistakes because it's all part of a process that is quite random. I don't like anything predetermined. Instead, I love the idea that I have got designs and swatches and yarns swimming round in my head but I don't know how they are going to fit together. It's a bit like having really great ingredients and not knowing how you're going to cook a pie."

For her autumn/winter 2004 collection, these ingredients included an opulence and exaggerated silhouette inspired by last year's Sadler's Wells production of Raise the Red Lantern; a touch of craft that tied in with Lok's ongoing interest in nomadic clothing; and an antique-gold Lurex yarn. The upshot? A 35-piece range that includes a Catherine-wheel crochet camisole; a loose-knit tank with sheer panels on the hips and a plunging neckline, crafted out of a macrame of fine yarn; a deconstructed bat-wing polo neck, with stringy ladders running from the shoulders to the elbows; and a voluminous, bell- sleeve, asymmetric cardigan threaded through with antique-gold Lurex that weighed almost three kilos.

"I suppose because I am creating both the silhouette and the fabric that the garment is made out of, it becomes quite an emotional process. In fact, it's a bit like having a therapist 24/7," says Lok of the often autobiographical nature of her work. "You could say that it's my emotional diary." While a past collection was created in response to a messy break- up with a boyfriend, and included soft knits that were designed to cocoon the body in a cloud of angora ("I wanted to design something that felt delicate on the skin because I'd been going through such a tricky time emotionally myself"), her latest collection is bold and daringly confident, mirroring Lok's currently happy personal life.

Of course, the downside to such an intensely personal approach (not to mention her unorthodox knitting techniques), is that producing Lok's collections doesn't always run as smoothly as it should. "My hand-knits are farmed out to knitters across the country," she explains. "Sometimes, things have been put together upside down and inside out, probably because that made the design look more like a classic jumper structure. But I suppose that is just because these people spend so much of their time knitting babies' bootees."

While they may be far from straightforward, once you've shrugged one of Winni Lok's knits on, what strikes you is not how challenging but quite how exquisite they are. "What Winni does is not knitwear but couture fashion. Each piece is quite unique, due to the fact that the majority of her creations are hand-knitted," says Li-Perry.

"So, the woman who buys a Winni Lok garment isn't buying a cardigan to keep herself warm, but, rather, is buying it for the same reason that she would buy a Balenciaga bag, for example: because it is just so beautifully designed."

Winni Lok womenswear is available at Selfridges (0870 837 7377); and her menswear is available at Harvey Nichols (020-7235 5000). Prices start at around pounds 175

Copyright 2004 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040902/ai_n12802576

 

[Buckwheat]

F/W 06

pics from pollyanna.com

 

[Buckwheat]

F/W 06

Men knit jakcet/coat

pics from pollyanna.com

 

[gius]

such a great post buckwheat!
i like the idea behind it...
that she designs out of spontaneity.
i think knitwear is a good place to finally start innovations

i wonder if her clothes could ever be made by machine or if it always must be done by hand...

 

[Benzo]

Thx for posting!
They look quite nice!

 

[Buckwheat]

welcome gius, benzo

men knit jacket (from 2004 I believe) second pic with a border T under

pics from http://allabout.co.jp/fashion/kitsch/closeup/CU20040905A/index2.htm

 

[Whitelinen]

That last one is gorgeous, but the others are just not for my taste.