Nadia Wire: Revolutionizing Knitwear While Bringing It Back To Denmark
Walking into Nadia’s knitting factory in many ways felt like walking into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, and it wasn’t just because of the dazzling colors, it’s because everywhere you looked there was a piece of apparel you just had never seen anywhere else. Much like chocolate that could make you fly, these skirts, these dresses, even the curtains took something we are so used to on a daily basis and made it irrevocably captivating and special. As the knitting machines chattered in the background, Nadia showed Marcus, our lead photographer and I around and we got to meet her amazing team. What shines through in every facet of Nadia and her teams work is the sheer passion and dedication in every stitch, and it’s something you feel when you’re lucky enough to hold the knits for yourself. But without further ado, let’s take it back to Nadia’s office on a sunny day in June and get to meet the designer herself.
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First off Nadia if you could tell us a bit about yourself – you grew up in Denmark?
"Yes, I grew up in Denmark, in the countryside, North Sjælland, and ever since I was a very young child, I think down to eight years old, I knew I wanted to be some kind of a fashion designer at that stage. I was, of course not that open to what it could be. So it was very traditional, sewing, knitting, handknitting at that time. So it was always in the cards, even though none of my family is actually in the creative field, the only person that had some sort of creativeness in their mindset was my grandmother. So she was the first one that introduced me to hand knitting."
You attended Central Saint Martins in London, one of the most art prestigious schools in the world, what was that experience like?
"It was like a new kind of world that opened to me. You go through all kinds of emotions when you start getting the patterns and you go through stress, frustration, but also just pure joy and feeling genius like on the top of the world. It's the best experience. You're really in a bubble constantly for three years where you only live and breathe CSM And only surround yourself with people from CSM, which is maybe not that healthy."
Your studies had a focus on knitwear, was that a passion you found during your studies or something you always had?
"So I knew I wanted to do textiles and what was really good about the course is that you get to export, print, weave and knit before you specialise. But as soon as they introduce us to machine machine knitting, then I knew I wanted to do knit because I already had the experience with hand knitting, but I had no idea how much you could take it so much further with machine knitting. So that was really when I knew. OK, this is what I want to specialise in."
As a knitwear novice myself I will ask somewhat uncertainly – did the work of designers like Issey Miyake help inspire what you thought could be done with knitwear?
"Definitely the work of Issey Miyaki inspires inspired me a lot in terms of like his whole rib structures, how that can create like volume and sculpture pieces, but more so because they come from a textile background I would say the work of Missoni. They really, to me, are the people that really push like colours, textures, patterns within knitwear. So this is something I look towards a lot when doing research like the archives and everything."
