It may be spring, but don’t pack away those sweaters just yet. Self-expressive, off-beat fashion—dubbed “weird girl style” by the TikTok crowd—is dominating the trend cycle right now, with colorful knits front and center. They’ve become a reliable statement piece in street-style photos as of late, and It girls like Chloe Cherry and Bella Hadid have been spotted in cozy, seemingly handmade pieces. Even Bella’s big sis Gigi Hadid has her own knitwear line, Guest in Residence, that specializes in cashmere with personality. And who could forget the viral House of Sunny dress that saturated our Instagram feeds last summer? (Portia from White Lotus couldn’t resist.)
While knitted styles are anything but new, fall 2021 saw a reinvention of this classic craft after brands like Miu Miu, Prada, Schiaparelli, and JW Anderson sent models down the runway in eccentric knits. Since then, the cozy winter staple has become a year-round fixture as it trickled into the mainstream through dresses with bold silhouettes, sets with daring cutouts, and even handbags made from yarn.
But as mainstream style jumps on the trend, the most interesting pieces are coming out of the studios—really, the bedrooms—of budding independent creators. This shift of knits from utilitarian to high fashion seems hardly an accident after interest in the craft spiked during the COVID-19 lockdown. Online search for arts, crafts, and design grew 63% from March to May 2020 as quarantine drove those with idle hands to new hobbies, inspiring this new crop of fiber artists.
Take Reagan Flora, whose sweater vests and sets float somewhere between Y2K grunge and camp with their playful use of bows and baby animals. Flora gained notoriety after she outfitted influencer and Anything Goes podcast host Emma Chamberlain, though she had been sharing her pieces on social media to adoring fans since early 2021.
Flora cites the “supportive community” around knitwear artists as a big part of her growth. “There are so many resources out there for learning how to do any step,” Flora says. “There’s someone that’s willing and ready and able to ask a question or answer it for you.”
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Indeed, #knittingtutorial has exceeded 200 million views on TikTok as creators share their learned skills. For many, it’s about continuing the tradition of knitting as a generational bridge between women.
One of those fiber artists is Kendall Ross, who learned to crochet from her grandma. Ross now creates one-of-a-kind wearable art under the brand name I’d Knit That. Her sweaters are highly coveted and perpetually sold out, and have even been exhibited at gallery shows. Charged with personality and immensely complicated, Ross’s pieces are made up of diary-like panels that contain woes and musings.
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“I’m taking my experience as a young woman—what I’m going through, what I’m feeling—and putting it in clothing by using this traditionally feminine skill to tell a young woman’s stories,” Ross says. “A lot of times people don’t see young women’s experiences or emotions as valid, in the same way that people don’t view knitting as this valid, important artistic thing.”
Once dismissed as a woman’s hobby, these young creators are reclaiming the inherently nostalgic craft as a way to connect and build community. Makena Andros, for example, says she originally learned to crochet from her grandma Oma, but quarantine became her self-proclaimed “crochet renaissance.” Her brand UR GF offers bold and chunky crocheted pieces, from hats to dresses and everything in between. What started as a new pandemic hobby has since led to almost 30,000 followers on Instagram, opportunities to outfit Gen Z icons Olivia Rodrigo and Iris Apatow, and a feature in a Nike campaign.
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Because of the patchwork nature of Andros’s pieces, she is able to use lots of yarn scraps to limit waste and encourages others to limit their consumption and turn to slow fashion like those being produced from creators like her. As Andros says, “It’s more exciting to exist outside of the fast-fashion cycle anyway, to be more creative and not wear what everyone else is wearing.”
As Gen Z turns toward thrifting, vintage, and more sustainable fashion, the durability of knitting and crochet emerges as one way to combat excessive consumption and fast fashion. While clothing production has doubled, an average garment’s usage lifetime has steadily decreased. When made with care, knits can last a lifetime, outliving any crop top Shein is churning out that week.
Nothing is more of a testament to yarn’s staying power than the work of Jammella Anderson, who describes their creations as “handmade twice.” In addition to knitting, Anderson is breathing new life into vintage crochet afghans, transforming them into wearable art with inclusive sizing at Lil Thrift Ma.
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“It’s about imagining and reimagining what the piece can look like and how I can translate the image that has been stitched into something wearable,” Anderson says. “I’m really playing on the integrity of the piece.” For them, knitting is also a way to decompress from their intense social justice work. “It’s always been pretty therapeutic for me—it’s like exercising in that way—where the monotonous act of it is very healing.”
It’s true, the act of knitting can be just as rewarding as the finished project itself. “The feeling when I first finished my first piece, it was just unexplainable,” Flora says. “Seeing it go from this ball of yarn into something that I could wear…it was euphoric. It’s an addictive feeling.”
Channing Smith is the junior designer at Glamour.
