Interview Series pt 01: People! Knitwear
Welcome to part 01 of Wild Wandering Woman’s interview series. This interview series will be a way to indulge in today’s contemporary culture by exploring a plethora of topics through good old-fashioned Q & A sessions.
To kick off the new series, WWW interviewed a new startup called People! Knitwear created by Allison Aniskina. People! Knitwear is a woman-owned fashion brand that emphasizes doing good for people and the planet with modular knitwear products.
Just in time for sweater weather, People! Knitwear goes live this Saturday, November 6th, 2021 with products available for preorder. Find out more about your new, soon-to-be-favorite knitwear brand below.
Now, it’s interview time!
01: People! Knitwear
1. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and what your background is in the fashion industry?
I was born and raised in New York, but my family comes from Moscow, Russia.
I always wanted to do fashion design, but thought pursuing architecture would be a more lucrative path. After completing 5 applications for various schools, I ditched them completely and went through with just one, which was to Fashion Institute of Technology.
I was in and out of New York because of the various study abroad programs. When I graduated in Milan, I was working as designer for a knitwear design studio for luxury companies that outsourced their knitwear. Best job ever, but I had to move and I chose to go to Moscow. New York didn’t feel right to me and my fashion friends didn’t seem fulfilled in their positions.
Even if Moscow was the off-beaten path, it was a true eye opener. I worked for various fashion start ups and realized I wanted to do my own thing. It's important to note that this was a decision I made after finally letting go of particular comments from professionals and some professors telling me I was too creative or I could never do it.
2. Why knitwear?
I come from a family of tailors, knitters, and handicrafters. My mom tried teaching me how to knit when I was younger, but there is a reason why most parents don’t teach their kids to drive.
When I got to F.I.T. I realized that the precision and pace of sewing didn’t work with me. Before we had to choose our specialisation, we were introduced to knitting. I fell in love with the freedom of being able to dictate the fabric from scratch. Without having to succumb to crooked stitches and not enough fabric situations. To me knitwear was forgiving and flexible— from there it was the start of my love story.
3. What is modular knitwear and how is it different from regular knitwear?
Knitwear aside, modular means being able to integrate or combine various parts of a product. With knitwear, you have various approaches. There is cut and sew which uses traditional pattern cutting on pre knitted fabrics. Fully-fashioned knitwear is knitting the pattern pieces row by row as it goes on the machines. This method removes the wasteful step of cut and sew with scraps leftover from having to cut them out of fabric.
4. What inspired you to use this method of design?
It’s been a long journey of analyzing and reflecting on what’s missing on the market. I felt that I had to solve a problem if I were to truly pursue this path in life. Every now and then I would notice modular elements in my grandpa's activewear pants or on a vintage skirt randomly found in St. Petersburg.
I believe in signs and they were there. Recognizing this, I merged knitwear and modularity. As I was test-driving my first sample, let's just say my Russian winters became so much better.
5. How/where are you sourcing your materials from and why?
Ha! This has also been a long journey. A long and itchy journey as a consumer and a knitwear designer. I always wondered why my mother’s sweaters don’t pill. My curiosity can be measured by the amount of color cards and yarn samples at home from all of my trials and errors of my previous work.
Believing that I can find better, I eventually found a lovely family owned company from Tuscany that works with eco-cashmere. Their eco-cashmere is 50% regenerated cashmere fibers and 50% cashmere. I knew it was the right decision because, after living in my samples for 6-7 months, the sweaters looked as new as ever. A method I think many big companies could get behind before releasing products.
6. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and how did you overcome them in order to launch your brand?
Running this one-woman-show is tough! It’s just me and my intuition and patience. Most times it’s everything you need to continue going forward on a journey full of surprises. No path is smooth. Either the government was a buffer or the fees I had to pay for the yarn to get past customs. There were also people that didn’t want to understand my modular idea or the need to use 100% natural yarns at the very least. Figuring out how and when to launch even if things seem uncertain.
The biggest challenge is doing what is expected of brand like ticking off all the online-presence boxes. Honestly, we're all humans and we all have our own unique story. With that I find it is so much more sincere to share the brand's struggles with the customers instead of trying to hide them. That's how I got to this point anyway, just having an honest conversation with friends and clients.
7. Why should people buy People! instead of regular knitwear?
I wouldn’t want to sway people from buying what they want. With People! products, I want to create items that allow customers to do more in everyday life. I want to inspire people to build a relationship with People! products, where they go beyond the singular wear and discover various ways of wearing it on their own
8. Where do you see People! in 3 years?
I want to grow People! organically. I don't have the intention of becoming a big company, where profit dilutes value. I want to listen to my customers, educate people, and release products depending on what is going on in the world.
To conclude part 01 of WWW’s interview series, People! Knitwear goes live this Saturday, November 6th, 2021 with products available for preorder.
See you soon with part 02.
xx,
Iz
