As part of my MA project I researched what women were looking for in special occasion dresses. I surveyed 18 women and asked them 10 questions, 5 about what their favorite formal dress was and why, and 5 about what they were looking for when investing in a new piece. There were a lot of recurring themes in their answers, which are summed up below. The 2 most recurring words were “comfortable” and “simple elegance” which I kept in mind when designing my collection. Versatility also came up, noting there weren’t always occasions to get dressed up but that they loved dressing up. This inspired me to design crossover pieces so they could feel fancy even while lounging at home.
How they wanted to feel in a dress was another important point I wanted to address. Common words were beautiful, classy, feminine, sexy, confident, and fun.
When asked about their knitwear reservations they mentioned too hot, too clingy, itchy, will it stretch out, and would it look formal? This guided me in my design process, and I made sure to address all of these points!
The next part of my research was interviewing machine knitters to learn more about how they relate to their craft. I got a wealth of insight into what knitters like to make, how they like to learn, and what keeps them engaged with the craft. Below is a summary of the data I collected with the most common themes and direct quotes from the survey respondents.
My favorite question in the survey was “Why do you like machine knitting? Has it affected your sense of well-being, and if it has how so?”
I was blown away by the responses. They ranged from it being a creative outlet, to being meditative, to enjoying the challenge, fulfillment, and possibilities machine knitting provides. It made me realize that for most knitters the craft is a “happy place” in their life that strongly impacts their sense of wellbeing. I relate to this, as learning to knit has been the biggest gift in my life too. This encouraged me throughout the project to continue to do a lot of experimentation to come up with new and interesting techniques that I could then teach to keep knitters interested and engaged, and inspire others to learn. This survey also provided great insight into how I can best serve the community upon my completion of the MA.
