Louise Goldin

LONDON, September 16, 2007
By Sarah Mower
It takes some oomph to extract sex, power, color, and hard-core fashion values out of a knitting machine, but Louise Goldin has it in spades. Making no apologies for knits as chilly summer evening cover-ups, she sent out a body-conscious, vibrant collection modeled by a team of girls who looked like they were about to dive into some sort of cyber-age swim championship.

There was so much going on in their dresses, hoodies, rompers, tunics, and bodysuits that it was hard to keep pace. Apart from the orange, cyclamen, turquoise, green, purple, and white, there were stripes, checkerboards, transparent bands, ruching, papery creases, and ruffles as fine and fluttery as tropical-fish fins. For a first solo collection from a young designer who has just emerged from the Fashion East collective (via Central Saint Martins), that was quite a convincing score.

Afterward, Goldin explained her mission to make knitwear count for something a bit more exciting than a standby cardigan: "I've freelanced in Brazil, so I know how knits can work for summer. I love it when I can put six colors into a machine and make something amazing come out," she said. "I want to push knitwear to a future vision." She's on her way.

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