Nice Pull by Anny Blatt, Magazine 216
If you are a knitter inspired by French fashion couture, chances are that someday you would like to add a Chanel-style garment to your repertoire. For guidance and inspiration, why not turn to French knitting? The knitting company Anny Blatt, which dates back to the time of Chanel, is a wonderful source of couture-inspired patterns. There are three essential challenges to knitting a designer-type jacket as I see them, and Anny Blatt has some great solutions for them all:
I: The first challenge is to create an expensive-looking fabric with interesting texture that is worthy of a couture garment. For more information on techniques to create this effect, see these posts:
http://yarnstylist.com/2012/10/combine-yarns-to-create-a-chanel-style-fabric.html
http://yarnstylist.com/2012/09/4-tips-for-knitting-a-chanel-style-jacket.html
Anny Blatt patterns use innovative techniques to create woven-looking fabrics, including slip-stitching, yarn combining, and surface crochet techniques. Here are some Anny Blatt jackets with wonderful textural patterns that fulfill this goal:
Veste Bacarra from Anny Blatt Magazine 218
Here texture is achieved through slip-stitching
Gilet Navarre from Anny Blatt Magazine 206
Here texture is achieved through surface crochet embellishment
II. The second challenge is to create a garment shape that is stylish according to recent fashion trends. Couture jackets are no longer all boxy, uniform suit styles. Look at the cape-jacket and crop top examples from the recent 2014 Spring/Summer ready to wear Chanel runway:
Chanel designs have also recently been focusing on coat dresses or tunics.
And look at how innovative these jackets shapes and trims were in the Chanel resort collection from 2013:
Fall/Winter jackets on the Chanel runways have become much longer, and often use metallic accents:
This is an area where many knitters run into problems. When knitting a Chanel-inspired jacket, rather than creating a lumpy, shapeless piece with an interesting texture, we should focus on the form first. Try to avoid boxy knitting patterns and choose designs that feature innovative tailoring. Here are some Anny Blatt patterns with more interesting, modern forms:
Veste Pierce, Anny Blatt Magazine 214
Cornelia Manteau, Anny Blatt Magazine 207
Pull Tunique Delft, Anny Blatt Magazine 207
III. The third challenge when knitting a couture-inspired piece is to finish the edgings of the garment superbly. A couture-style jacket will live or die depending on its finishing. Couture designers use expensive finishing techniques that involve the use of beading, metallic threads, hand-woven braids and even, in Chanel’s case, sometimes shredded cartridge tape. If the edging of your jacket is too simple or clumsy, it will look like the tackiest, cheapest piece imaginable because it is emulating a designer garment but falls short. The devil is in the details. Anny Blatt has designed specialty yarns like Aiyana, Victoria and Muguet whose main purpose is to provide a couture-style finish for knitted jackets:
From L to R: Aiyana, Victoria, Muguet, Louxor, Muguet
Anny Blatt has also devised some clever techniques for edge finishing in addition to their innovative materials:
Veste Porticcio from Anny Blatt Magazine 216
Jacket is finished in Aiyana yarn
Veste Venice from Anny Blatt Magazine 214
Jacket is finished in mix of Victoria and Muguet yarn
Dressy Spencer from Anny Blatt Magazine 207
Jacket is finished by forming the knitted border into a roll and whip-stitching the roll with Victoria ribbon yarn.
These were just some of the wonderful patterns I discovered in the Anny Blatt section of the boutique, Modes et Travaux in Paris. For anyone who is interested in obtaining these designs, you can find some magazines, translated into English, at:
You can also go directly to the Anny Blatt website and order these magazines in French. If you include a message in your email they may also send you an English translation with your magazine. The Spring/Summer Anny Blatt Magazine 218, is their current feature and I know the English translation is available, because I obtained it in Paris.
http://www.annyblatt.com/