Prints! Prints! We love prints. Especially if they’re mixed patterns with a Nordic feel. It’s great when you can see a designer having fun with her work, and it looks like designer Janine M. Villa did just that. Her background in graphic design shows and she’s not afraid to mix polka dots with waffle snowflake prints, while still keeping a lady-like, structured silhouette. The chunky knits were the creation of designer Amanda Nervig who collaborated with Janine M. Villa on this collection. Amanda looked to the richness of Welsh blankets to add texture and dimension without the expected bulk. Their meeting of the minds produced a fun, quirky and totally balanced collection
From the press release:
Janine M. Villa hails from Toms River, New Jersey. She attended Boston University, earning her undergraduate degree in Graphic Design with minors in Business and Art History. While earning her Master of Fine Arts degree in Fashion Design at Academy of Art University, she also worked as an Apparel Design
Intern at Rebecca Minkoff in New York, and as a Product Development Coordinator at Inspirare in San Francisco. Villa took inspiration from the vintage Welsh blankets she had collected, and built her collection around their rich textures and colors. She kept her silhouettes simple and clean, looking to school uniforms
and tailored men’s wear, and allowed the beauty of the blankets to remain the focus. She collaborated with knitwear designer Amanda Nervig, who designed knit accessories and sweaters for the collection.
Amanda Nervig grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and attended the Kansas City Art Institute, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Fiber, before coming to the Academy of Art University to pursue her Master’s Degree in Knitwear Design. She interned with Donna Karan in New York. Taking Villa’s lead, Nervig was inspired by the colors and patterns found in the vintage Welsh blankets, seeking to add depth to the collection as a whole with her chunky knits and unexpected embellishments.
Photos by Randy Brooke/Getty
Left: South Korean designer Kate Y.K lee will debut her Fall 2012 collection which was inspired by the sculptural elements of architecture and emphasizes rounded silhouettes, which are offset by defined lines andsharp, angled seams. She constructed the garments using leather, wool knits, lightweight wool, and silk charmeuse.