Halling the Knits

One thing that has been drummed into my head in my few days of vegging out in front of the hotel TV is how the nature of American seasons and the 'coming of fall' is really emphasised in seasonal advertising.  "We have great denim offers for fall."  "Fall is coming, better stock up on school supplies." etc. 

Not that we don't have 'Back to School' offers thrown at us in the UK but autumn as a season isn't really emphasised in the same way.  Like the sucker that I am for TV-brain washing, all this 'Fall' talk has me subliminally reaching out for knits, capes, boots and layers - all the things that I normally adopt for leaf crunching, most people's favourite thing to do during autumn/fall - even if the temperatures outside suggest otherwise.  I think I may have seen more than 50ml of sweat coming off a jogger's forehead the other day as he was trudling by.

This may explain why I picked out the chunkiest Jil Sander knitted top yesterday at the Barney's Warehouse sale and why I'm posting about this debut collection of knitwear by Amy Hall.  Yokoo does somewhat own the chunky knitwear game though I have a feeling she may be heading in a slightly unexpected direction as her hugely successful Etsy label probably starts becoming a bit of a mini empire.  Amy Hall is a self-taught knitwear designer who interned at Clare Tough for a bit and as now launched her mini collection of seven pieces that are made in the heart of Dalston and ready to buy straight away.  She's a slightly more expensive prospect that Yokoo's knits though her mix of yarns errs towards the use of silk and mohair and merino wool and her pieces are larger scale too featuring capes, schrugs that can be worn both ways that are heavily built up in texture. 

The names of the pieces - squirrel,discount coach bags, possum,outlet coach, fox,http://ubbrmt.blogspot.com/, mink, beaver, monkey and bunny - are of course animal references without going anyway near the actual animal.  I love that the faux take on animal fur which I saw as a bit of a mini-trend at the LCF BA shows has been taken up as a commercial prospect through Hall's collection.  It will be interesting to see whether Hall builds on top of these initial core designs or where she does seasonal collections like other London-based knitwear designers.  I'd like to see badger, stoat, hare and vole get added to the mix... anthing to recreate Animals of Farthing Wood of course...