Design fleece sweaters without parallel

Icelandic designers Aníta Hirlekar, Hilda Gunnarsdóttir and Sigrún Halla Unnarsdóttir are credited with super-stylish fleece sweaters and blankets that bring Icelandic wool out of turf huts and straight into the future.

These fresh fleece sweaters are not at all reminiscent of the traditional Icelandic ones and come like a warm breeze into the cold spell of Advent. The purpose of the project is to get Icelandic designers to approach the Icelandic fleece in a new way. The line includes both sweaters and blankets.

Anita Hirlekar in her design. Photo/Saga Sig

Colorful Garden of Eden made of wool

Aníta Hirlekar's line is called Eden and is decorated with brightly colored flowers on a black background, while the pattern in the sweaters is reminiscent of her popular dress line.

"The process started with the color palette, but the idea was to use strong color combinations that would suit a home that needed a little color,"

“I think it’s important that the rug looks beautiful, even when it’s snuggled up on the sofa.” You can turn it in all sorts of ways, and the rug’s appearance changes so that it constantly takes on a new look. “The colors work really well in a minimalist home.”

Anita says she has worked with knitting a few times, but never in this way.

"I actually approached the design of the rug as a kind of work of art in the home, or perhaps more as a functional art. We went through all sorts of ideas and it was a bit of a challenging process to translate into knitting, but nevertheless a lot of fun since Icelandic wool is also such a remarkable raw material."

She says the sweater was created from a raw sketch that she wanted to have something eye-catching and cheerful. "The name of the line is Eden, which I think is incredibly fitting, as the design is a kind of Garden of Eden of flowers, but the flower itself in the picture is my abstract version of the Icelandic flower Snotra."

Sigrún Halla Unnarsdóttir wears a sweater made by herself. Photo/Saga Sig

Part of the remarkable industrial history of our Icelanders

Sigrún Halla's blankets and sweaters are two-tone in navy blue and white. She says she drew inspiration for the line, which she calls Arctic, from images of ice floes floating on the ocean from above.

"There is a wonderful stillness about these images, while at the same time concerns about global warming creep in,"

"I've been involved in knitwear design for almost a decade, both by chance and because I wanted to move home after my studies. We are so lucky to have a great wool and knitting factory, VARMA, that protects both the raw materials and our heritage of working with Icelandic wool."

"After I got my toes in there, it's been hard to get away. I've been in a really privileged position to be able to waltz around there, but it's unique to have a knitting factory right in the middle of the city," she says.

"Working with wool is part of our remarkable industrial history as Icelanders, and I'm always learning something new there. I'm starting to realize that I sometimes sound like Guðni Ágústsson, but around 1800, 26 pairs of hand-knitted duggar socks were worth as much as 120 fish. That must have been a great insight in those days."

...Wool is a heritage that we should be proud of but at the same time be unafraid to allow it to evolve with us.”

Hilda Gunnarsdóttir designer. Photo/Story Sig

Needed a more cheerful version of an Icelandic fleece sweater

"The artistic director of Rammagerðin, Auður Gná, approached me when she was starting to work on changes to the overall look of Rammagerðin," says Hilda Gunnarsdóttir, who designs under the label Milla Snorrason.

"I have to say that I think the changes have been really successful. The frame shop has completely changed and has become such a beautiful store that supports Icelandic design in a beautiful way. They initially included my sweaters with faces on them, which I designed in collaboration with the artist and my friend Sarah Gillies almost ten years ago. The face has its roots in an oil painting by her. The sweaters had not been on sale for a while as I went on a break from studying which then turned into maternity leave. The collaboration then evolved into me designing a blanket with the face on it, which was really fun because I have long wanted to try putting a face on a blanket.

"The colors in the blanket appealed to people so they at Rammagerðinn asked me to implement them in the sweaters as well," says Hilda, admitting that she feels good about designing from Icelandic wool and that the production takes place in Iceland.

"This was actually the main reason I designed the sweaters in the first place." 

I felt that a slightly more cheerful version of the Icelandic fleece sweater was needed and I wanted to participate in designing and producing garments in Iceland and from Icelandic materials.

"That desire perhaps came a little from considerations about the environmental impact of clothing, animal welfare and wanting to have a good insight into the circumstances of the people who are in charge of production. Also, and no less important, is to participate in supporting Icelandic industry because if designers stop producing in Iceland, then of course production will not be able to survive."

Here you can see Sigrún Halla's sweater in yellow and white. Photo/Saga Sig Aníta Hirlekar in a sweater after herself. Photo/Story Sig Here is Hilda in the sweater and in front of the blanket she designed. Photo/Saga Sig

Read the article on mbl.is here