DESIGN - Mother and Daughter Knits

Great fashion design always manages to effortlessly appeal across generations while achieving a timeless, classic status. It's what makes a Chanel suit as relevant today as it was in 1923, and why it suits women of all bodyshape and age. To take the idea a little further though - can great design span a much wider age spectrum - the polar opposites of young and old. And if it can, should it?


The Livia Cardigan for adults and kids

It's something we at MillaMia had to think rather deeply about a couple of years ago. We had produced some of our most iconic pieces - the Charlotte Cardigan, the Cecilia Coat and the Alexander Jacket for children but were increasingly being asked by our customers to upsize them. The exclamation of 'I would wear that!' from a lady customer at one of the retail shows we attend, as she lovingly gazed at a tiny cardigan for a 2 year old, was something we would hear repeated many times over.

After much debate, we decided to bow to popular opinion and selecting some of our most sought after designs, we 'grew them up' for the adult audience. The trio of adult collections was received with such enthusiasm and admiration that we knew from the outset we had made the right choice. Some of the key pieces were indeed exact, upsized replicas of the kids garments and these are still proving to be our best-selling patterns to date.

 

 

Charlotte Cardigan and Charlie Cardigan

 

 

Cissi Swing Coat and Catrin Jacket

 

Lovisa Cardigan and Annika Cardigan

 

Lilian Jacket and Bella Jacket

We all know instinctively when a design works - whether sized for a child or an adult, man or woman. If it manages to encompass classic appeal, great fit and style as well as offering a glimmer of unique detail to set it apart then it will happily grace the halls of the great. It may be blowing the MillaMia trumpet to say that these garments have managed to achieve the heady heights of great design, and I will leave you to form your own opinions about that!

Aside from pondering their level of greatness, the one thing that is true to say is that the trend of Mother and Daughter knits has already begun to gather some momentum here in Europe. With Alana Dakos aka Never Not Knitting trailblazing matching knits for Mum and daughter in the US with such designs as her Gnarled Oak and Little Oak, and with Mothers Day fast approaching here in the UK, there has surely never been a better time to cross the generational gap and step out in matchy-matchy style. Has there?

(posted by Max)