The advent of handmade knitwear and crocheted fabrics into the fashion scene as a trend is an interesting one as it coincides with the current development of slow fashion. Sustainable and ethical fashion is a response to the negative environmental impact and sweatshop practice perpetrated by fast fashion companies. Consequently, the number of brands, especially Black-owned ones, and fashion trends rooted in slow fashion has been growing.

Unlike before, when knitwear used to be referred to as a grandma’s hobby, artisans and designers of different ages have picked this up as a hobby, and most importantly, for the business of fashion. Sweaters have been replaced with outfits of various sizes, colours, and style – leaving needles and yarns as the ever-present constant in the craft of knitting and crocheting.

The unconventional fashion of knitwear

A significant edge in knitwear fashion is how it has become unconventional and keeps evolving by the day. It gives the designer limitless options and the wearer many styling choices.Besides the sweaters – which are also still very much in fashion, varieties of knitwear styles now exist as the crocheted/knitted version of practically any fashion outfit or item.

Walking down the aisle in a crocheted wedding dress or outfit could be a way of combining comfort with unconventionality, and knit or crochet trousers might be unlikely but they are definitely not a miss.

Knitwear as slow fashion and the Black-owned brands championing it

Knitwear is intentional sustainability. From thoughtful sketching to creative designing and production by crocheting or knitting, knitwear pieces are often created from scratch by hands with needles and yarns. The process can take days depending on the size or outfit style. This also means pieces are being created with minimal waste. In fact, crocheting is best described as the craft of the hands as there are no machines that can successfully create crocheted wears.

Since handmade knitwear fashion began enjoying renewed interest from fashion consumers around the world, it has also been received with just as much eagerness by established, luxury, and emerging Black-owned brands that are actively contributing to slow fashion through the various ways that knitwear affords.

Unlike fast fashion companies that mass-produce knitwear with machines at cheap prices, these brands abide by slow fashion as many of the designers source ethical yarns and employ the hands of skilled local artisans to produce high-quality, sustainable items in little quantities or upon order. 

The brands behind the knitwear revolution

Elexiay, a Lagos-based knitwear brand, was founded by Elyon Adede in 2018 after she was inspired by a conversation in one of her classes about climate change. Focusing on knit and crochet, Elexiay explores both crafts to create outfits that depict elegance and gracefulness as they are mostly in soft, pastel, and neutral colours. The brand, which mostly caters for women, speaks subtly about the Nigerian heritage through various apparels such as dresses, sweaters, and two-piece outfits. The crochet pieces are sustainably handmade by local female artisans in Nigerian while the knits are made in Europe and Asia.

Ore Akinde’s eponymous brand which focuses on crochet is for expressive and bold women who are not afraid to show some skin. Designed and handmade by Ore Akinde herself, the pieces are daring and equally beautiful. Wearing an Ore Akinde piece could also mean standing out in a crowd as she experiments with vibrant colours and even mixes a number of complementary coloured yarns to produce a blended multicoloured outfit. The brand also features a collection of mesh bags which are mostly designed in monochromatic colours.

Colourful stripe patterned and patchwork outfits are one of the prominent ways through which Olisa Kenya makes its statement as a knitwear brand. Founded by Kenyan designer, Akoth Otieno, Olisa Kenya seeks to create comfortable, everyday pieces that make its wearers make a statement effortlessly. This is seen in the splash of playfulness with which most of the pieces are created. 

21 Wool Street became a sensation in September 2022 for designing, writer, Ope Adedeji’s unconventional crochet white wedding dress. The brand, founded by Elizabeth Adedeji, houses more collections of crochet accessories like bags and hats, than it focuses on apparels. 21 Wool Street deeply portrays the coolness that comes with youthfulness.

Founded in 2013 by Edwin Okolo and Imobong Emah, Studio Imo is a sustainable knitwear brand based in Nigeria. One of the brand’s fortes lies in experimenting with yarns of various materials, textures, and sizes to produce desired knitwear pieces with touches of vintage style.  

Mihankushea is an Amsterdam-based crochet-focused brand owned by Masandra Mustapha, a self-taught crochet creator with Sierra Leonean roots. Each piece is designed by Misandra herself. Mihankushea defines the style of women who dare to wear colours without appearing chaotic. The brand majorly caters for women, with collections of dresses, blouses, and two-piece outfits fashioned in incredible patterns.

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Challenges faced by Black-owned knitwear brands 

In July, 2021, Elexiay called out fast fashion company, Shein, for copying the design of one of the brand's sweaters. This $330 sweater had been mass-produced and put up for sale on Shein’s website for $17. Following the post made by Elexiay, Shein took down the sweater from their website.

Elexiay shares something in common with two other slow fashion Black-owned brands: Knots and Vibes and Hanifa called out Fashion Nova, another fast fashion company, in 2019 and 2022 respectively for copying their knitwear designs, making a machine-made version and selling them at far cheaper rates.

Design theft is one of the challenges bigger Black-owned crochet brands have had to deal with. It poses a big problem for their craft if a ridiculously cheaper, inferior and ready to wear version of their design is being sold. The dominance of fast fashion also informs the choice many fashion consumers make and how they view handmade knitwear.

Owner of 21 Wool Street, Elizabeth Adedeji says, "Crochet in particular, is very slow fashion centred and doesn't operate on a ready-to-wear basis. Since the fashion industry is majorly fast fashion focused, people want fashion pieces they can get in no time, meanwhile, most crochet brands usually work on a two or three-week timeframe to deliver clients' orders. If a customer cannot be patient for some reason, I'm more likely to lose that order."

Knitwear creators with relatively smaller brands also stand the risk of their work going unappreciated and being invisible as a result of fast fashion options. “Getting people to trust your brand when there are a lot of places to get fast fashion is not very easy. Being a small creator, I know that the general public would rather opt for better-known names,” Obiageli Medebem of Forget Me Knot shares.

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For these creators, there is also the problem of sourcing ethical materials. They have to put pricing in mind without compromising quality.  “Concerning prices and the economy, it can be really difficult to incorporate affordability in your prices. Yarn prices have skyrocketed since I first got into this business in 2020 and it has affected me quite personally. Even locally sourced brands like Yeye yarn increase their prices frequently so you can’t particularly depend on them for cheaper yarn,” Medebem says.

Oluwanifesimi Alonge, the founder of The Sylphcrochet also confirms this struggle and added that the issue of inferior yarns creates bigger complications. “While sourcing yarns, one has to be careful because there are lots of substandard yarns in the market packaged as the best,” she states.

As a solution, Adedeji explains that providing funds for handmade knitwear brands will go a long way as running one is quite expensive. Also, the way knitwear is perceived by fashion consumers needs to change and fortunately, the enlightening TikTok and Instagram reels through which knitwear brands take their followers on how they create their pieces help with that.  "I'm not certain this will stop anytime soon, but fast fashion brands need to be held accountable for stealing or copying the works of knitwear brands," she concludes.