Men's S/S 14 - Texture Play

 I absolutely adore this one from 3.1 Phillip Lim

A twist on the classic cable from Dries Van Noten

The quintessential summer stitch - a fun mesh mix from Tillmann Lauterbach

 Mixed Media by MAN

Men's S/S 2014 - Abstract Intarsias + Jacquards

These are some of the fun sweaters that have caught my attention from the Men's S/S 14 collections.

 Carven

Kenzo

 

 Henrik Vibskov

 E. Tauz

 Nicole Farhi

To all who celebrate it, I wish you a...

Inside Look - Designing a Knitwear Collection

A fun process film about my senior collection development- enjoy!

Brand Spotlight: RLX

 

"Luxury. Technology. Performance."

Besides RRL (which I shall talk about in another post), RLX is one of my favorite "subdivisions" of what I like to call the Ralph Lauren Lifestyle Apparel Empire. It's ultra-modern, bold, and, well...really darn cool.

The tagline - Luxury. Technology. Performance- couldn't be more fitting. The amount of thought that goes into the placement of every zipper, pocket, and miscellaneous notions, is astounding. In addition to that, their knitwear pieces tend to be edgier and sort of unexpected. 

I would totally wear that chunky intarsia pullover, if I were a man about to go a skiing adventure. ;)

Swatch designs taking shape

Preliminary Swatch Development

Before we create an actual garment, there are a few things we need to do first... (okay, that's a lie, there's a bunch of steps that lead up to the actual piece!) I'd like to explain these for the benefit of anyone interested in studying or learning about fashion and knitwear design.

Although everyone has their own way of doing it, most of us work within a similar process:  first, we find our inspiration and design direction. After we do that, we usually work on our color story  and, depending on what we are actually creating, we choose the yarn and/or fabric we will be working with. In knitwear, it is after we source our yarn that we start working on tension swatches and stitch development. I promise, all of this is more complicated and time-consuming than it sounds. Add to that how easily distracted we get when we are designing..we start in one place, then we see something else that inspires us, and end up with a completely different direction! (Not everyone is like this, of course, but I have been guilty of this once or twice ;) )

Actually creating the garment with all of its technical specifications is another process entirely, and I'll talk about later on. However, here are some pictures of my stitch/design development swatches for one of my senior collection looks. This is just the beginning!

My Tumblr

So, I finally caved in and made a Tumblr to complement the blog.
Although this site will be my main priority, the Tumblr account does make it easier to re-blog images, and I'll probably have different content on there, as well.

Here is the link if you'd like to follow me: http://knits-and-prettythings.tumblr.com/

I'll also put a link for it on the right side navbar soon!

:-)

Flashback

 "Ralph Lauren Collection poncho and jacket as Featured in Elle France’s Special Fashion Issue, February 2013"

I was very excited to find this image featured in the official RL Tumblr, and with good reason! This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to intern for their Sweaters department, and this was one of the designs we were working on. Unfortunately, my internship reached its end before I could see the finished product, so I was really happy to see that it made the cut for the show and that it ended up being successful.

This poncho was particularly tricky; it was supposed to reflect the exact colors and designs of one of the vintage serapes that served as inspiration for the season. Sourcing the dozens of matching hues that made up the different ombre stripes in the right yarn count and quality was not an easy task! And don't even get me started on what it took to get the correct repeat for the layout... Overall, it was a very eye-opening experience. Sometimes designs look simple and straightforward when they are anything but!

First Sketchbook addition...

As I mentioned before, I'd like to document parts of my design process through this blog. As part of that, here is my first Sketchbook addition!


These (unfinished) sketches are part of a collection I did while I studied abroad at Nottingham Trent University, in Nottingham, England. Later on, I'll post my inspiration for the collection (called Electro Memento), and some design/knit developments I did for it. I'll also post pictures I took while I was over there, of course! :-)

Collection Spotlight: Tess Giberson F/W 13

I'm a bit ashamed to admit that this is the first collection I've ever seen from American designer Tess Giberson. Since I knew nothing about her - or the brand - I decided a bit of research was in order. It turns out Giberson began her career as a sweater designer for the Men's Collection at Calvin Klein; by 2005, she was the Design Director at TSE (a high-end knitwear brand).

Truthfully, I wasn't surprised by her knitwear background - the attention to detail, and overall successful combination of color and texture, were proof enough of her skills. I've been immersed in knit design for a while now, and every season it gets easier to distinguish the designers that add knit pieces as an afterthought, and the ones who truly know what they are doing. I also love how almost every look in the collection looks comfortable, and completely wearable; it's an excellent mix of function and aesthetic. It's safe to say I'll be following her collections from now on!

The collection images are from www.style.com.

It's about time..

Hello, there! My name is Olga Santiago, and I am about to graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology (located in the Big Apple) with a BFA in Fashion Design. My specialization is Knitwear, and I absolutely love what I do.

 I had been wanting to make a blog for a long time but had never gotten around to it, mostly due to lack of time. It's not like I have any more time right now (specially with so many deadlines looming!), but I think now it's a good time (haha) to start documenting my work and inspiration, as well as keep track of the progress I make with my senior collection.

In addition to "scrapbooking" bits and pieces of my projects, my blog will be an outlet for all of my obsessions: fashion, art, design, and beautiful things! (With a focus on knitwear, of course)

Warning: I tend to ramble like a crazy person when excited...

Enjoy! 

-Olga Santiago :-)