Fashion crochet

You don't need telling that crochet is like a rash - it pops up everywhere. Couture is no exception - the designers love to showcase the 'made' arts (I'm not going to even breathe the word 'craft' here!!!).

The trouble is that you could spend all day and night looking for a comprehensive collection of the haute view of crochet. A blog that I love but, sadly, one that seems to have gone silent recently is chiq. The writers obviously love the world of fashion and crochet and you can browse to your heart's content at the versatility of it all.

Oscar de la Renta has used crochet for summer and a very nice tank-top it is. Net-a-Porter has more details.

Jean Paul Gaultier can always be depended upon to use it imaginatively in more challenging ways than just a straight-forward garment. I love the idea of the sleeve-inserts of this suit.

The area where fashion and cooperative work appears is within the community and is becoming quite a buzz concept. It's a bit of a gripe with me that the hard work of those who use their skills to make fashion clothing often don't get the credit (financial most importantly) for their work. Two businesses that have come to chaincreative's attention, both working in South America, are women's cooperatives in challenging areas.

First off is the Escama Studio that combine recycling and promoting village craftspeople by designing accessories and clothes. Their biog tells their story -

Based in San Francisco, Escama Studio works directly with two Brazilian craft cooperatives — Cia do Lacre and As Panteras do Lacre — to design and produce these sleek, modern pieces using traditional crochet techniques and recycled aluminum pull-tabs. I love their Francisca Bag. 'Industry experts warned us that we'd run out of aluminum pull-tabs and advised that we'd need to use machines to get consistent quality.
Luckily experts are sometimes wrong.
Four years and 70,000 bags later we've learned that craftswomen can do something that machines can't: make consistently beautiful bags that are at the same time very personal. We've also learned that the world's abundance of ‘junk’ offers a lot of creative potential.'

In the spirit of cooperation, they even give you some do-it-yourself instructions!!!

Using the same philosophy, Giuliana Testino (yes, Mario's sister) is aiding her community in Peru. You would not expect to hear this from a fashion designer -

"Social responsibility is voluntary; it is about going beyond the limits of what the law requires and involves an idea that it is better to be proactive toward a problem rather than reactive to a problem. By using my education and my understanding of my environment I'm capable of demonstrating a social responsibility that is a step in the right direction to bring development and education to a community-my community of Peru."

Her work also extends to organisations such as Women Together who provide funds and support to homeless and battered women and their children. This is brave work and one I'm glad to see crochet has some involvement.