Mistress of the hook, Jenny King, explains how crochet is capturing world fashion markets
Found in the Get Creative Quarterly – Autumn 2011
My daughter says I’ve been predicting the new crochet fashion revolution for years. She was only a teen when crocheted flares filled the magazines and a crocheted wedding dress was a much longed-for item. Finally my prediction seems to be coming true! Hold onto your hooks, search the op shops for 1970s crochet patterns and get crocheting.
My friend Amanda Cox is an assistant merchandiser for a large clothing company in the UK. When I
say large I mean the company usually orders 10-12 thousand pieces to stock over 600 stores in the UK and Europe for each of its six or seven clothing labels.
One of these labels is Top Shop, a name familiar to anyone who knows the UK market. Amanda says that crochet is “the new knitting” and crochet, as seen in the 70s, will be back – the florals, the lace, the dresses, tops and waistcoats will all be crochet.
Crochet sleeves in garments, crocheted flowers and embellishments are also looking good. “Flirty and feminine, with a slightly peasant style” was how Amanda described things.
Unlike knitting there are no crochet machines to do the work. Every piece has to be made by hand. The company Amanda represents may not be able to get enough crocheters in China to fill the orders. Could there be a crochet crisis?
Experienced local crocheters should be on high alert to field requests from loved ones who are desperate to wear a crocheted garment. This is the perfect opportunity to put crochet hooks into the hands of a new generation.
In fact the crochet revolution is making me realise we need more qualified crochet teachers in Australia and New Zealand. I’m going to fly Arnetta Kenney, Associate Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, to Australia in the middle of this year to right this situation. Arnetta will be offering a certified instructor’s course for both crochet and knitting from the Craft Yarn Council (CYC).
This course is the only international certification available for people who would like to teach knitting and crochet or who would like the CYC qualifications. It will be held in winter, on the Sunshine coast, beside the beach. Sounds terrible doesn’t it?
I am a professional member of the Crochet Guild of America and did my certification to teach crochet courses with Arnetta in 1998 in Seattle.
Now everyone’s mad for crochet you can bet I’ll be getting on to some new patterns for spring and summer to come. It’s going to be all hooks a go-go!