Magpies are eye-catching birds which have captured human imagination in myths and culture. Their appearance is striking, with high contrast black and white plumage melting into an other-worldly iridescence. Magpies are also bold and curious birds with social behaviors familiar to humans.
We have been fascinated with feathers and wings as a beautiful decoration or a source of natural wonder, but to the birds, they are also functional tools. Flight, communication, courtship, and protection from weather are just some of the functions which have evolved in feathers. This meeting of beauty and function inspired a collection exploring the dimensionality of knitting as a means of shaping a garment.
Material and structures work together in fabrics which expand or collapse as they release from the machine. Patterns repeat in yarns which react differently under the heat and water of finishing. The result is unconventionally shaped garment panels, in which stitches and yarn selection are both decorative and functional.
Each garment in the collection draws inspiration from an aspect of the design inherent in magpies, from the moire patterns of wings in flight to the microscopic structure of iridescence. Fabrics were developed and produced on a Shima Seiki SWG 234 10 cut machine as well as hand operated Passap, Brother, and Stoll machines.
Design research explored the wide range of fabrics textures created from the tuck stitch. Final fabrics mirror the details of magpie feathers, from downy puffs to the scaled microscopic texture of seemingly smooth flight feathers.
Garment Development
Downy Lace Cape & Color Shift Waist Shaper
Iridescent Layers Crop Top
The Downy Lace Cape (above left) is designed with tuck and miss stitches, creating a lacey fabric when knit in a novelty yarn. The Iridescent Crop Top (above right) is a variation on the classic half cardigan tuck pattern. Its dense appearance comes from alternating feeds of covered elastic and a combination of wool crepe, monofilament, and metallic yarns.
Another inspiration was the changing appearance of a magpie’s wings. The high contrast patterns of their feathers become a shifting moire pattern when in flight.
The Flight Wrap Skirt has a fluid fabric and moves gently with the wearer. The black and white body of the skirt is fine worsted merino, which relaxes and blooms under steam finishing. The blue and black side panels are viscose crepe, which contracts during finishing. The contrasting yarns give the skirt's hem an organic curve.
Working from the same inspiration of wings in flight, the Color Shift Waist Belt is a dense, structured fabric. The appearance of the pattern shifts depending on the angle of viewing, creating a sense of movement. The fabric structure is itself a wave, and many rounds of sampling were needed to find the ideal combination of color placement and structure size to create the effortless look of the final fabric.