Annie Larson is a fashion designer and an all around inspiring lady– her work is stuck in my head.  I discovered her on flickr and promptly viewed her entire photo stream in one sitting.  I then moved on to her blog, SWNKDLLR, where I became hopelessly sucked in–learning about knitting techniques, the constraints of designing for mass production at Target corp, and her participation with the New Land of Milk and Honey.  Intensely curious, I decided to ask her a few questions.

modeled by aby wolf

Could you tell me about what drew you into fashion design, and specifically weaving?
Surprisingly, my interest in sweater design and knitting came from my design job at Target Corporation, where I worked for three years after college. In my final year at Target I was designing classic sweaters for men, and became really interested in yarns, sweater construction, and knitting technology. I suppose this interest piqued as a response to how boring my design job actually was, but the intrigue stuck around. My obsession with machine knitting began soon after, right around the time we were writing our first proposal for New Land of Milk and Honey. At first, I didn’t have any plans to knit for the NLMH collection since all of my work up to that point had been in flat pattern drafting and sewing. Up until three months ago, I was only planning to knit a few pieces. In the end, I ended up knitting over twenty full garments. I think I like it so much because I can control the outcome more. Nearly all of my work has involved a theme realized by careful selection of color and pattern, so the idea of creating my own textile in a new medium was overwhelmingly cool.

Clothing is a necessity, but it also serves myriad functions besides just keeping us warm and covering our bits.  Could you tell me about what clothing means to you, how it functions, why it’s important?
I use clothing for all sorts of things. It’s important for me to dress a certain way because I enjoy thinking up different ways to dress. I am a firm believer that there is a time and place for everything, and having a broad range of options is necessary to be able to change my mind frequently. Clothing articles are important to me in a physical sense because I like to study the construction and materials; I enjoy the way garments take shape on bodies. I could talk about clothes for days with anybody that will listen. Of course, these are my personal feelings. I would never dare to even touch on the subject of why clothing should matter to other people. It’s personal. From a designer point of view, I usually take an opposite stance and focus hard on a single theme that affects my work for a longer period of time. I think all of the energy funneling into one place results in something that often feels…overzealous, but worked through. For me, the physical act of producing clothing is the most important part of the process, I need to understand how everything fits together.

You’re currently working with The New Land of Milk and Honey.  As I understand it, NLMH is a commune in Wisconsin, consisting of creatives who believe in community and the practice/study of ‘alternative’ living.  Can you tell me more about NLMH and your role there?
1. The New Land of Milk and Honey is an embellished expression of a spiritual arts-based community, stemming from our own community here in Minneapolis.
2. The New Land of Milk and Honey is a collaborative art show featuring fashion design, video art, choreography, architecture, installation, word play, togetherness, music, and so on.
3. We all believe in the NLMH.

modeled by fletcher barnhill

Oh, so awesome!  Thanks Annie!  And, if you’re in the Minneapolis area stop by The Soap Factory to view Annie’s work and lots of other cool stuff in the NLMH Exhibition, it runs through April 4th.  Credits:  All photos taken by Sam Hoolihan and Ross Yates.  All the clothing is designed and created by Annie Larson as a part of the NLMH collection, made in 2009 and 2010.

modeled by lindsay noble