Quick! If you haven’t already joined the local WI [the Shoreditch one is packed full of the young and the stylisth], get a wiggle on as crochet is emerging as a big story for next season. Home-spun craft permeated the New York collections with Rodarte’s tangle-of-textiles thing (inspired by condor wings this season, if you please), Marc Jacobs’ heavy lace and off-beat pretty mix, and up-town Oscar de La Renta’s cool teal blue crochet two piece. London designers have also got hooked on holes.

Kicking off day two, Canadian Mark Fast sent out a strong collection of body-con knit dresses that upped his game from last season’s raw, laddered look with intricate panels of crochet that snaked their way around the body revealing slices of flesh – it must be said, to varying degrees of wearability.
Not surprisingly, John Rocha had a crochet moment at his packed to the rafters show with Sarah Brown sat front row. Rocha has always played with soft layers of knit and texture, but this season he added a structured edge to his pastel chiffons and raggy frills with moulded crochet dresses and panniered tops that looked as it they would stand up on their own like pieces of sculpture.
It was left to Ramon Gurrillo, making his first catwalk appearance yesterday, to prove that crochet can mean wearable too. “I come from Valencia where we have a great tradition for crochet,” says Ramon. “We have amazing local artisans, aged from their early thirties to late seventies, who can produce beautiful fine crochet that is both refined and sexy. We have had a great response from buyers here.”

Report by David Hayes

Tweet This Post