Alice Palmer’s work first caught my attention at London Fashion Week’s exhibitions. You couldn’t miss her colourful knitted dresses. I saw her work again soon after at a press day and was hooked.
Alice graduated at Glasgow School of Art and did her Masters at Royal College of Art, before launching her knitwear label in 2008. She won Best Womenswear designer during New York Fashion Week the same year and was nominated for Fashion Designer of the year at the Scottish Style Awards in 2009. Impressive? That was just the beginning. The highlight of her career so far was meeting John Galliano when she was a finalist of Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden – “He was so supportive and such a lovely and humble guy” – she says.
Palmer is a busy hard-working woman. She is known to knit 20 garments in 20 days but tries not to do that anymore. Normally she spends about a month researching/knitting samples/drawing and designing the collection, then one to two months to make it. She is already working on production and starting ideas for AW 2012 and is really looking forward to next year which will show some exciting new developments along the lines of knitted sculpture and some possible collaborations. I can’t wait to hear more, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Asked why she chose knitwear, she replied she likes the idea of making something from scratch – there are endless possibilities for fabric development… experimenting with yarns and colours and creating new forms – then controlling the fabric to do what you want it to do. It’s very satisfying… I feel like grabbing needles and knitting too.
The Alice Palmer woman is sophisticated, edgy and knows exactly what she wants. I noticed the AW collections are mostly monochromatic whilst SS is more colourful. Here is her explanation:
“The Autumn Winter 2011 collection was inspired by minimalist art and I wanted to keep it very fresh and modern – I love monochrome for the simplicity and boldness, letting the shapes of the garments take over. For Spring Summer, I guess I do generally use more colour – this season for me is much more playful and this may come across in the use of colour and the fluidity of the garments.”
The ‘Interstellar’ SS12 collection was inspired by Glam rock, namely David Bowie and his ingenious creation of Ziggy Stardust. Also for the shapes and distorted patterns she was strongly influenced by topology and Op Art.”
Everything is made environment friendly and it is something that she feels strongly about. She tells me in 2010, UK clothing and textiles produced 2 million tonnes of waste and in garment construction cutting waste is 10-20% of fabric consumption, therefore in her mainline she uses sustainable production methods which require no fabric waste.
Original wearable pieces and eco friendly. What’s not to like?
Apart from showing in New York, you could also see her in Tokyo and at London Fashion Week with Vauxhall Fashion Scout. I expect more added to the list soon. She is definitely one to watch.
