Peytie Slater wins LCF x Knitup Design and Marketing Competition
- Written byJ Tilley
- Published date 24 January 2024
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BA (Hons) Fashion Textiles: Knit student, Peytie Slater, has been crowned winner of the LCF x Knitup Design and Marketing competition - a fast moving project to generate knitwear designs using visual rendering on Knitup - a new, real-time, direct to consumer digital knitwear design platform. Students were asked to market and share the story of their design process and inspirations using social media. Peytie will now have an online profile in the Knitup store and her winning designs are available to order. We caught up with her below to find out more about the project.
"We love how she utilized the portfolio and social media in relaying the collection from start to finish. In her portfolio, she was a detailed processes on how she came up with the topic of Aesop’s fables with the innovative twist of highlighting human behavior to these well-known classics. Peytie had given clear step by step examples on how she aims to market the collection and we appreciate the extra effort of mapping the renders onto a model, forming a complete look. It’s these attention to detail and presentation of a complete packaging that had her entry at the top of our lists." - Knitup Competition Judge
Congratulations on being crowned winner of the LCF x Knitup Design and Marketing competition! How does it feel to have your work acknowledged in this way?
Thank you so much! It’s really exciting to see my designs brought to life, I feel like I have so many stories I want to tell through my artwork and for Knitup to provide this platform has been such a thrill!
Tell us about the competition – how did it come about and what were you required to do? Tell us about your design ideas and how you came to focus on Aesop’s Fables?
Our tutors presented the competition to us and we had a meeting with some people affiliated with Knitup, and they told us that for the competition we needed to design a range of 5 items using their platform, as well as create a marketing plan for those designs. I was really excited by their technology, it’s a very user-friendly site for bringing your designs to life. My research always tends to comment on human nature, and I always like to study that through a unique lens. I was drawn to the stories of Aesop’s Fables because on surface level they have a very playful and child-like storyline, but the deeper messages say something about the innateness of humans. I began by drawing out some scenes of my favourite fables, but modernising them to make the characters have more specific personalities and having them come to life in my head. I began to really fall in love with some of these characters I developed, and wanted to use the attitude and demeanour of different ones to inspire the final designs, mostly by using the illustrations I made for the Knitup garments.
Who are Knitup and what do they specialise in?
Knitup is a knitwear production company supported by Cobalt Fashion, and focuses on using their technology to make knitwear production more accessible. They specialise in sustainable practices such as innovative supply chain solutions as well as more eco-friendly yarns, to make knitwear production easier on designers as well as the planet.
Were there any particular aspects of the brief that you found challenging? Did you learn anything new in the process?
The brief really wanted us to think about our customer, and how these garments would interact on the market. As a knitwear student it’s really easy to get deep in the creative process and forget to recognise how your garments would behave in real life, so it was a fun and challenging exercise to think about how to market your designs and who they would be sold to.
What can people do to show their support?
I’m already very grateful for all of the support from this collection, and if people want to purchase any of the items they can on the Knitup collaboration online shop!
What are your future plans for life after graduation? What is your dream career path?
I just love creating, so the ultimate goal is to continue creating and exploring whatever that may be. I would love to work on a knitwear team for a brand to learn more about the industry, and in the future I’ve always wanted to start a brand of my own whenever the time is right. I love exploring the intersection between art and fashion, and I would love to continue having my feet in both worlds to see what can be created from both spheres being intertwined.
What would your advice be to anyone looking to join the BA (Hons) Fashion Textiles: Knit course at LCF?
Going into my foundation year, I was very stubborn in wanting to go onto the womenswear course and thought that that was the only path for me. But once I opened my mind from who I thought I was as a designer, I learned so much more about how I actually design; which is by thinking about the textile before I think about the silhouette. Even though I didn’t have any knitting experience, this realisation is what made me join the course and I just had faith that it was the right choice. Now, in my final year of the Fashion Textiles Knit course, I have fallen in love with knitting and the endless possibilities it has in the fashion world. My biggest advice would be to let go of who you think you are as a person and a designer, because we are always ever-changing beings and there’s always going to be more to learn about yourself!
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