The Holborn team may mistakenly be assumed to have a thing for tweed, but don’t think a nice piece of soft knitwear doesn’t make its way into our homes too. Following our recent Cockpit Arts outing, we are currently craving one of Row Pinto’s gorgeous, tactile and above all, colourful cushions to brighten our sofas and provide comfort following a heavy night on the whisky. Taking into consideration our current Scotland issue, we were pleased to discover Row’s reliance on a small Scottish factory to produce her designs. Read on to discover more about Row’s inspirations, process and her vintage knitting machine, no hand-knitting here.
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Please can you introduce yourself and your work to The Holborn readers?
I am a knitwear designer based in Cockpit Arts in London, with a background in trend forecasting. As a freelancer my designs were sold to international fashion houses including Marc Jacobs, Sonia Rykiel, Donna Karen, Nicole Farhi and Cacharel. I started my company in 2004 with an aim to bring traditional country knitwear to town with a new and eccentric twist.
I design and handcraft knitted throws and cushions, a luxury sleep and travel range including hot water bottles and eye-masks and a fashion accessories collection for men and women. Most pieces are knitted in my studio using a vintage industrial hand powered knit machine. I also work with a small factory in Scotland who produce knitwear to my designs.
Colour is at the heart of all of my designs. My signature, unique and subtle stripes are characterised by beautiful palettes where I mix, match and clash colours to produce a collection that I hope you will love.
I am dedicated to using the finest quality British yarns, particularly Scottish lamb’s wool and cashmere. My aim is to achieve an end product that feels as beautiful as it looks and draws on knitwear traditions passed down through the centuries.
My products are now stocked around the world including Liberty in London and stores in Paris, Geneva, Tokyo and New York. I am proud to knit hand-crafted pieces that I hope will bring years of comfort and pleasure!
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Your colourful knitted cushions are what initially caught my eye at the recent Cockpit Arts open studio. Could you share your creative process for them please – from initial inspiration and idea up to the finished product?
Each of my products is designed and hand crafted in my studio in London. Many stages go into the creation of each one. I work with story boards to focus and gather ideas and use these to help me decide on a colour palette for each new collection. Each stripe is designed using yarn wraps before being knitted on my hand powered vintage machine. From these initial swatches, I work out a pattern and start doing an initial sample to get the best look, fit and finish. Once I have the finished design and pattern I knit the piece then all the ends, created each time I change colour, are individually hand tied before each piece is washed and pressed and finally hand stitched and finished. This ensures a supreme quality, that my clients recognise in my work and the creation of something that you can use and love for years to come.
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Which do you prefer – hand or machine knitting? Why?
I don’t use hand knitting. I trained at Brighton University where I did a degree in Fashion Textiles with Business Studies and specialised in knitwear. At university we were taught how to use different machines before spending a year in industry working with designers and honing our skills. From the first time I was shown how to use a vintage, industrial machine I fell in love with it’s fine Swiss engineering and the possibilities for design and experimentation with different yarns. It took years to learn on the machine and experiment to get the look and finish that I wanted and to practice my craft to be able to produce a finished product.
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Tell me about the last time you felt challenged by your work.
Running a small business is a constant challenge and pushes me to try new things and work at aspects of having a business that do not come naturally to me. I am lucky to have my studio in Cockpit Arts where I am surrounded by other small businesses and crafts of many different disciplines which is incredibly supportive and inspiring as well as a great team of Cockpit staff. Each year I try to challenge myself to improve my product and the way I run my business whether this be doing a trade show in Paris or travelling to Japan to meet with clients. It is a refreshing challenge that calls for long hours and lots of hard work and is frustrating at times but very rewarding.
What are you most looking forward to at the moment?
I am working on my new collection to take to Paris in September to show all my clients and I am really looking forward to getting back samples from the factory I work with in Scotland and finishing the new pieces that I am making in the studio. It is always an exciting and nerve wracking time of year but a good focal point to aim for.
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Finally, what does ‘A Well Made Life’ mean to you?
A well made life is a life full of balance. Hard work and time to rest and relax and spend time with friends and family and experience new things, hand crafted work alongside well designed mass produced work. Taking inspiration from the past and keeping and enhancing skills and crafts that have been worked at for centuries alongside new technology.
I also feel that volunteering and getting involved in your wider community is a really important aspect to a well made life, trying to bring your limited skills to help others.
Finally, I treasure the fact that I work alongside many businesses who use their hands to craft and design a product and I am continuously inspired by their focus, passion and dedication to their work.
This is the third in a series of articles profiling makers from Cockpit Arts Studios in Holborn & Deptford. Keep your eye out for more here.
Interview by Verity Inett
workshop@holbornmag.com
Images by Jeremy Johns Photography