Rebecca Furniss
Modern Monastic
The collection was initially inspired by a hidden hermitage within a Northumberland town called Warkworth. The colour palette of green and pinks were taken directly from the remaining walls of the hermitage and this section also inspired the main motif that has been used as a source of stitch inspiration throughout the collection. One of the main focuses of this collection was to develop pattern through knit stitches. Within the collection, the idea was that the stitches were only hand manipulated stitches without using a fairisle. The idea for this was to alter traditional sticthes and see how they could be used in different ways, for example; using a traditional ladder stitch in a motif to give a different take on how a ladder stitch can be used.
For this collection, silhouette inspiration was found through researching the people that would have lived in the hermitage and looking at the links the hermitage had to Holy Island. Traditionally, monks would have lived in these types of hermitages and moulaging from these images created the basis of the silhouette designs. This moulage also inspired the idea to create a seamless piece of knitwear. Furthermore, traditional vestments from the Discovery Museum Archive as well as an exhibiton at Auckland Castle, inspired the silhouette.