Warm, even warmer: 8 Russian knitwear brands
On fashion design in Russia influenced by local climate: "eight months of winter" suggest that things for the cold season should be at least diverse. This query is answered by local brands working on knitted knit collections - this is exactly what is most in demand in the winter and what can be made warm, practical, comfortable, beautiful and fashionable at the same time.
Text: Svetlana Paderina
Mirstores
The founders of Mirstores, Katya Ukhlinova and Aleksey Kindras, started in 2015, having managed to grow a brand with a full-scale assortment of knitted knitwear, including men's, women's and children's clothes, designer and basic lines, as well as a collection of accessories for three years. The information that all products are made in Russia is encrypted in the label's name itself: the abbreviation MIR means nothing more than Made in Russia. Brand branded items - voluminous textured sweaters, compact turtlenecks of candy colors, cute cardigans with sleeves-lanterns. True, now began to appear and textiles, so now you can buy a coat from Mirstores, under which exactly the "same" voluminous sweater will fit.
Ksenia seraya
Muscovite Ksenia Seraya graduated from the Florence Institute Polimoda and, by her own admission, always loved working with knitwear. “When I first looked into the workshops, where I had to study, and saw knitting machines there, I just sat down at one of them and started to knit,” she says.
After studying, Ksenia gained experience at Ermanno Scervino, and now she is developing the brand under her own name, regularly showing collections at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia. Gray treats knitwear outside the box: it approaches knitting like architecture, works with complex shapes and experiments with technology. “I like the search for avant-garde design solutions,” says Ksenia, “but I never forget that clothes belong to the human body as a result, that they should be comfortable. I always follow the proportions, so my clothes fit perfectly. But at the same time, I really like it when people, even professionals, cannot understand how it was done. "
Bureau de tricoti
Mark graduated from British graduate Galya Chepkina, who at that time already had her own line of minimalistic wedding clothes, and therefore, the experience of how to promote a niche project. Bureau de Tricoti started with monoproduct - merino wool knickers, which are proposed to be used as an extra layer to underwear during the harsh Russian winters. For the manufacture of products selected high-quality Italian wool, comfortable in operation - the shorts are soft and not thorny. This season, Galya and her team expanded the range: knitted crochet tops and a body in two versions, with sleeves and without sleeves, were made in a pair of shorts. You can either purchase the finished product, or order it by your own standards, after discussing the color palette.
Dasha Phi
Dasha Filatova lives in Yekaterinburg. The girl says that she came to the production of clothing through related activities, working as a publishing editor and stylist in a glossy magazine and deciding to try to do things on her own that she could not find in stores.
Today, under the label Dasha Phi release items from cashmere. "Previously, as a small producer, I could only buy yarn on Italian stocks, but now the brand has grown to contractual relations with a company that supplies cashmere for Chanel, Bottega Veneta, Prada," Dasha shares secrets. The collections of the brand consist of laconic, easy-to-combine clothing, the industrial production of which is located in the Ural capital. “The close interaction with the production gives our customers the opportunity to make small individual changes to the models,” says the designer. “We don’t have a huge flow of visitors, but almost every customer who is impressed with the product in the toe becomes constant.”
Moroshka by Vingil
The collection of bright things of large knit Moroshka was originally conceived by Ksenia Kigaeva as an art project. But after the photos of things went online and interested the potential audience, the designer decided to expand the line by adding more wearable clothing and accessories. "We use only pure wool and we manually knit everything individually for each client. Each item is checked before shipment and, due to the nuances of producing such a large and voluminous texture, can be tied several times," says Xenia. According to some customer reviews, Moroshka sweaters are not cold in sub-zero temperatures, so some models can easily replace a coat.
Ancré joy
The founders of the brand made their debut quite carefully, a little more than a year ago by releasing a mini-collection of knitted dresses and cardigans. “We painstakingly worked on each product,” they say, “selected the yarn in composition, mainly using natural threads of Italian and New Zealand production, tested them in production and operation, improved the fit of things. And after the first customer reviews appeared, that's on the right track. "
The peculiarity of the collections is color: while many brands that produce universal knitwear try to stick to a neutral palette, Ancré Joy chooses a bright and fresh color scheme, while the finished items fit perfectly into an ordinary urban wardrobe. Products are developed in St. Petersburg, manufactured here or in third-party factories in the regions. “It’s not easy to keep the price level high, given the dependence on the rate of imported materials,” say the designers. “But the cost of our things already takes into account a small coefficient on delivery across Russia.”
Forest glade
The St. Petersburg brand Forest Glade, founded by Lisa Sidorina, promotes a return to naturalness, closeness to nature, love for natural materials and elegant shades. In the work on knitwear of the brand, yarn from cotton, viscose, cashmere, mohair, and merino is used - including with the addition of synthetics, which in proper proportions helps to improve the quality of natural raw materials. Sweaters dominate in the collections of the brand - smooth and with non-trivial textures, jumpers and turtlenecks, tied by car or by hand. As an accent, there are delicate handmade elements, such as abstract embroidery, resembling the northern lights, or crocheted details and inscribed in a minimalist design.
Totti
Totti has been working on the knitted accessories market for more than ten years; more recently, clothing collections have been produced under this label. In the women's Totti collection, you can find sweaters with "braids" and embossed turtlenecks that will interest those who are tired of exaggerated volumes; jumpers with funny patterns and curious details - for example, with sleeves-lanterns. In the creation of products used mainly wool with a small percentage of synthetics, as well as rayon. Collections are made at a factory in the Moscow region.
PHOTO: mirstores
