When it comes to starting a new knitwear collection, Lucy Downes has always worked from her own frame of reference and an aesthetic perspective guided by a love of natural shapes and botanical forms. The vernacular landscape informs; one series of handknits in baby alpaca in a blackberry stitch, for example, is called Mizen after Irish weather stations. Other styles took root after a visit to Suzan Frecon’s exhibition in New York, the veteran American abstract artist notable for sensuous curved shapes and combinations of colour, whose particular subtlety and tone are achieved from grinding her own pigments. “I was absolutely floored by these giant diptychs and by her colours,” recalls Downes whose response has been to create original shapes, panels and shades for her Sphere One winter knits that draw from this exhibition.
“One of my greatest pleasure in work is investing time and effort in finding beautiful yarns and a unique colour palette,” says Downes who started her business in 1999, shows in Paris and New York twice a year and buys from the world’s top yarn houses like Loro Piana, Cariaggi in Italy, Todd & Duncan in Scotland. These are the mills that supply Hermes, Chanel and Dior among others and who nail the perfect hues for her in their dyeing laboratories from supplied cuttings and swatches. Among her new shades are those called caperberry, sulphur, tashi and squirrel.
The pieces that directly draw from Frecon’s shapes have names like Suzan (a slim cashmere dress in squirrel), Frecon (a cashmere top with silk panel in larch and caperberry) and Helter (a cashmere cardigan with cerulean blue panels), their curves highlighted with the use of glossy habotai silk, a contrast to the lightweight cashmere creating different surface textures. Another cable knit shows her experimentation with different surface patterns from abstracted Moorish motifs after a visit to Cordoba in Spain. Necklines are always considered and flattering.
Next January she will debut a new collection of updated Arans in collaboration with Inis Meáin Knitwear at Pitti Uomo menswear fair in Florence based on imagining what a modern west of Ireland fisherman might wear out working on a boat, incorporating new technical yarns. “Big US buyers love original and unusual pieces and price is not an issue when it is something exceptional,” she says. Sphere One, with its signature logo, a handstitched circle, is stocked in Brown Thomas and Havana in Ireland, exported to Japan, Canada, the UK and US and is sold online at sphereone.ie
Downes gives good guidance on looking after cashmere. It should be handwashed in lukewarm water with an eco wash, Lux flakes, Woolite or shampoo and no conditioner because it flattens the fibres. She advises plenty of rinses and a spin dry (not tumble dry) in a washing machine and then hang dried in a warm place but not sunlight. It is important, she stresses, to wash sweaters frequently to avoid moths and any pilling, minimal with well-made cashmere, can be carefully shaved off with a razor.
Photographs: Aisling McCoy, creative director and producer Daniel O Gorman, stylist Ruth Higginbotham, model Briony Somers at Distinct Model Management; hair and makeup Leonard Daly.
