De Bånd, Vi Knytter

This knitwear collection is a love letter to flax and wool and their sensuous ties to people, history, and landscape. The collection explores Danish heritage cloth, personal relationships, and the potential of regional production. It presents garments not as disembodied objects, but as tangible expressions of interdependent relationships, shaped by the material realities of production and use.

'At knytte bånd' typically means to build relationships, but literally translates as 'to tie ribbons'. Across the collection, this double meaning is explored through forms of twisting and tying: of bands and ribbons, in lacing and bindings. 

As such, the tie functions as a recurring reminder of our interdependency and an obligation to care for our clothes, their makers, and the invaluable contributions of sheep and flax as more-than-human companions.

Fibre

The choice of working with flax and wool was made partly for their inherent qualities in use and wear, but also for their connection to Danish textile tradition.

For millennia, flax and wool served as the basis of Danish textile production. In the last century, this industry has all but vanished, obscuring the complex, skilled, and labour-intensive processes of the craft. Today, efforts are made to reestablish a Nordic textile industry. This collection was realised in support of this movement.

Landscape

The collection was formed by time spent among grazing sheep in Odsherred and at Det Vilde Spinderi, a small wool mill in Nykøbing Sjælland. Additionally, a special visit to Hørvævsmuseet in Krengerup, Funen, where volunteers uphold the area’s historic linen production, helped shape the collection.

The woollen yarns for the black-and-white striped jacket were spun at Det Vilde Spinderi from the wool of Danish Spelsau sheep. The cloth for the blue-and-white striped jacket was woven at Hørvævsmuseet in Krengerup.

Cloth

Fabric development pays homage to historic Danish textiles, especially from the 18th and 19th century peasant costume. This choice was made, not in the hope of reproducing a pastoral utopia, but in reverence for the fabrics of a flourishing cloth culture, rooted in resourcefulness, care, and respect for their making.

Knitted structures were chosen to highlight the fibres and yarns themselves, be it the delicate slumps of the flaxen yarn or the soft lustre of raw Spelsau wool.

Production

All garments presented in the exhibition were either programmed and knitted on an industrial, computerised knitting machine or made by hand on domestic knitting machines. Additional pieces were produced from readymade woven fabrics. 

The collection combines high-tech industrial manufacturing with distinctly hand-led processes. All knitted pieces are fully fashioned, meaning that each pattern piece is carefully programmed and shaped as it is knitted. Several pieces apply a signature lacing technique, where seams and darts are laced by hand using eyelets knitted into the fabric during knitting.