The energy of Liadain Aiken
Bespoke knitwear handmade in Ireland
A self-described businesswoman by accident, Liadain Aiken is the knitwear designer and owner of Liadain Aiken Knitwear.
Her whimsical designs are deceptively simple; the colour choices often irreverent, always eye-catching.
It was a pleasure to talk to Liadain from her knitwear filled kitchen in West Cork.
I hope you enjoy following the threads which run through her story.
This is a 15 minute read, so grab a cup of tea and settle in.
The beginning is a very good place to start
After graduating with a degree in interior design, Liadain worked for several years and then travelled before once again feeling the call to creativity.
‘Interior design in Ireland is mostly pubs & restaurants (or domestic); when I was in college, all the pubs were ripping out their lovely old interiors and putting in loads of plasma screen TVs… Interior design wasn't really for me but it did hone my technical skills.’
A basic dressmaking course sparked a real interest into the technical construction of clothing, so, upon her return to a distinctly quiet Dublin in 2008, Liadain enrolled in the Grafton Academy.
Though working in interior design provided a brief introduction to the sourcing of sustainable materials, it was a struggle to source ethical cotton at the time, so Liadain started to look at wool.
No stranger to making, Liadain grew up around wool and knitting needles; her Fermanagh mother, grandmother and sister were all gifted knitters.
With her sister’s help, Liadain started knitting again and made a series of loose fitting hand knit sweaters (one of which she was wearing during the interview).
Inspired by sustainable fashion brands like We Are Islanders by Rosie O’Reilly and Kate Nolan and events held by Redress and the Ethical Fashion Forum, Liadain made a commitment to sustainability at the very start of her career as a knitwear designer.
Buoyed by the wide availability & the rich history of wool in Ireland, Liadain set off to Brighton for a 10 week domestic knitting machine course with a 1 week introduction to industrial Dubied machine knitting.
London was next; she completed an internship with the innovative brand Leutton Postle. Sam Leutton and Jenny Postle were two girls who joined forces to create a head turning brand over a total of six runway shows.
‘That brand is no longer together but it was very hands on and craft orientated with very colourful designs. They were using a lot of lurex so it wasn’t so sustainable but it was great to work with them.’
The evolution of Liadain Aiken Knitwear
Upon her return to Dublin, her studio space became filled with cotton velour jumpers and machine knitted hats, initially just for herself, friends and family, but word spread quickly.
‘I wanted people to choose the colours that they wanted, so that they could really embrace themselves. People choose different colours for their jumpers and for the cuffs, it was very playful and I brought that into my niche.’
Between working in the costume department of the hit TV show Vikings and starting to sell hats at the Dublin Christmas market, 2014 was a year of new beginnings for Liadain.
By the following year’s market, Liadain realised she had a potential business on her hands when previous customers returned with their beloved hats and wanted to purchase something else.
Liadain began to stock items in stores, starting with Scout in Temple Bar, Dublin.
I just followed the threads; I didn’t have a plan.
I loved the markets because of the interactions with customers; going into the shops was amazing too. It pushed my brand much further than I could have myself.
Whenever I got an order from Canada, for example, I would ask them how they found the brand. A lot of people said they had seen my stuff in the Irish Design store during the summer and they remembered the brand when they needed knitwear in the winter.
When Liadain began to stock other stores, she very cleverly distributed designs so no store had exactly the same items. Clearly it worked; eventually 11 stores (and her own website) carried Liadain Aiken knitwear, which meant, back at the studio, it was all hands on deck.
‘My sister is an art teacher, she used to come after school and sew hats; if friends wanted to hang out, they came and made pompoms!’
The late nights & overseeing numerous interns and studio assistants left little time to develop new designs. Faced with a choice between growing even bigger and starting to charge VAT (which adds 23% to the consumer price) or scaling back to a more sustainable business, both energetically and financially, Liadain chose to scale back. She moved to West Cork in 2019 and continued to produce knitwear with a cottage industry model. Currently Liadain has two knitters who work from home and one studio assistant; luckily these ladies have other sources of income, so there isn’t quite as much pressure.
Does cottage industry still work?
For me, yes. It's such a good industry for women and mothers in particular, they get to mind children and keep the house running (which is a job in itself and should be paid for) and they can do work in the evenings or in the free hours.
The kerchiefs are made by a lady with a motorised knitting machine, which I don’t have. We send the yarn out and I get the items delivered in batches. It’s really about being organised & tracking parcels with DPD.
Knitwear is tricky though; one of my knitters changed her knitting machine, so we had to recalibrate all the sizes. We were delayed for a few weeks to make samples, wash & dry them and adjust the patterns. But that is one of the things we have to navigate. That’s what makes it slow fashion.
The inconsistency of sizing is a constant battle for me.
Liadain uses a single ply merino wool which requires wet finishing, to shrink and fluff up the yarn before wearing.
Wool is a fickle mistress though; depending on how many items are in the washing machine, the jumper could end up a cm shorter.
To avoid the slightly twisted seams and temperamental sizing, Liadain would have to source yarn from elsewhere. Though the merino yarn she’s using is from Australia and New Zealand, it is processed in Co Donegal; it’s as Irish as it can be at the moment and she prioritises local materials.
Her website offers a mix between ready to wear and made for you options.
The ready to wear items, like the lambswool kerchiefs, are already made and ready to post. The made for you items are essentially commissioned items; for these popular milestone birthday or graduation gifts, people choose their own colour combinations.
‘The jumpers are around €260. They are investment pieces; people save up for them.’
(Arguably not expensive enough; as Jeff Wall said ‘The mystery of value is the fundamental mythical content of modernity’)
Many slow fashion designers are currently considering ways to include the customer. If a customer is actively involved in the design process or colour choices, the resulting garment is amore sustainable (the customer is less likely to dispose of a sweater with their favourite colours!)
Giving people the chance to choose their own colours is a chance to celebrate themselves. Rather than following trends or celebrities, it is about tuning in and asking 'What does your soul say?’. You could say it’s just picking colours, but I want people to really shine and be themselves in the world. We need sheep for wool, but we don’t need…
She trailed off but I knew exactly what she meant.
Much of Liadain’s work, past & present, involves - and empowers - the consumer.
She has an upcoming project with the National Gallery of Ireland, a Dublin institution which is currently working with fashion and jewellery designers to create products based on their collection of paintings. Liadain can’t tell me which painting she’s considering, as the project has not been finalised, but she says the modern painting is uniquely suited to embroidery.
Pricing any design with time-consuming embroidery is a tricky business; perhaps the final design will include an embroidery kit for the more adventurous consumer to tackle in their own homes. Liadain loves the idea of getting people more involved in their clothing, which very much fits the ethos of her brand.
I want to empower people, perhaps with kits, so people can put their own stamp on their clothes.
She is often approached by people to mend their beloved knitwear, projects which she generally turns down.
‘If you only had two pairs of socks and two jumpers, you would have to mend them! You wouldn’t have the luxury not to! I tell people when they first start darning, it won’t be as good as mine, because I’ve had a needle in my hand every day for ten years. But the second or third time you try darning, it will be significantly better.’
Life is slower in the West.
Since moving to Cork, her new business model has allowed her to the freedom to, you know, have a social life and actually pay herself; all the reasons creatives start their own endeavours in the first place.
The last few months (or years? We’ve all lost track of time recently) have been a rebalancing, a recalibration for Liadain. She now takes part of the summer off from work, leaving time for seaweed baths and commissions and, best of all, new designs.
At the moment, I’m trying to build back stock so there are ready to wear items in the [web]shop, mainly for people buying gifts and then I’m going to design some new stuff. I’m trying to find a balance between running the store and more creative projects.
She is currently leaning towards limited edition runs of her designs rather than commissions; simply to get back into the groove of designing, she has started to make striped hats with the end of yarn cones. Without the pressure of perfection, the artist can let go of the outcome. The result? Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe… not.
And that’s ok.
All good art requires bold experimentation.
‘I was just following a thread… I still am.’
Personally I love to ask designers about their other creative pursuits, because, almost without fail, they have another one up their woollen sleeves.
Today that thread seems to be leading Liadain back to her roots, in more ways than one.
Inspired by childhood summers spent in a little shack of a house in the shadow of Ben Bulben, Liadain is now painting landscapes in greeting card sizes.
Landscapes were the subject of her first knitwear designs during that course in Brighton; she used intarsia, which is essentially painting with wool. While it is mind boggling to do with hand knit patterns, machine knit intarsia sits in the overlapping Venn diagram of art and math. Liadain recently completed a large scale intarsia commission of the turquoise Keem Bay on Achill Island, which has been described as the most beautiful and least known beach in Ireland.
‘I layout the design in Illustrator and print off A4 or A3 pages and stick them together as a guide. With machine knitting, you are looking at the back of the design, so it does require a lot of planning!’
Looking forward to the future
I’ve had to consider what I would do if I couldn’t find machine knitters… perhaps I would let the business go and see where life would take me. I am continuing to follow the thread and invite other things in.
Like this Irish Wool, for example.
She picks up a cone of gorgeous grey brown wool.
This yarn is from a flock of Jacobs sheep in Moyhill farm in Clare. Fergal Smith is a former pro-surfer who runs a regenerative organic farm. We got the yarn spun in Portugal simply because there wasn’t anywhere in Ireland. It’s not as soft as other yarns, but it could be worn as outer wear, with a shirt underneath. I’m thinking of developing some hand knitting patterns with it.
She has her eye on natural dyes and aims to create products to ‘bridge’ from imported to Irish Wool.
I've been following what Malú ColorÃn is doing; she's amazing. We need to get more spinning and processing of our own yarn, regardless of the quality.
I visited Olann Mills in Cavan two years ago. I’d love to gather some more fleeces and get them processed in the mill.
Speaking of colour…
Liadain believes a jumper should be like a colourful hug, warm and personable. Her colour combinations are often unexpected; she draws inspiration from ‘where the man-made world meets the natural world’. With colour references including graffiti or baling twine tied over gates, it is fortunate indeed that Donegal Yarns has a wide selection!
Things have changed significantly over the past ten years; there is much more interest in sustainability and designers now have wider than ever access to markets (in theory anyways).
Indeed, it is thanks to designers like Liadain that young designers now can purchase smaller quantities of Donegal Yarns.
Loads of other companies are using Donegal Yarns now and I have to remind myself that’s not my yarn! There is enough for everyone!
Colour featured significantly in a recently commissioned birthing dress; Liadain hand-embroidered a fertility symbol on the long woollen dress, with seven colours woven throughout to represent the chakras.
While sewing, Liadain was listening to the audiobook ‘Braiding sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer; a book which the lady, who would wear the birthing dress, listened to while sowing her garden seeds that year.
The beauty of the reciprocity was not lost on Liadain; as a sample project, this commission encapsulates the importance of clothes, lovingly made. Clothes undoubtedly carry energy; perhaps, for the most important and tenuous moments of our lives, we should not wear items made by Very Unhappy People TM.
Energy is all important to Liadain.
Liadain Aiken Knitwear is quite a heart-centred business, which is perhaps the only way to successfully run a business as a spiritual person.
Her intuition guides most decisions; collaborations and promotions only work if they happen organically.
That energy must also be protected, though; for someone as visual as Liadain, the cotton candy land of Instagram holds a legitimate risk of addiction.
‘I’ve put apps on my phone to stop scrolling. Then I stopped posting as much!
Instagram is a great tool. I don't have a massive following but I was always very conscious of interacting honestly from the heart; if I saw a designer that I liked, I would always comment or send them a message. I was keen to see what reaction I would get back from people, to get a feel for who was genuinely looking for connection. I think it's all about finding your people.’
And find her people she has.
Liadain’s photoshoots are filled with friends on both sides of the camera; when I talked to her, she was just back from a sea swim with a friend who has provided photographs and poetry for previous launches.
There is a kindness to Liadain. Talking to her made me feel as though I had taken a trip down the rabbit hole and found a world of artists that support one another.
(It wasn’t just a feeling; she got off the call and purchased one of my designs.)
Out of curiosity, I asked about her inspirations:
‘My main inspiration was Annie Larson of All Knitwear; when I saw she was making her work, which was so colourful and bright, on the domestic knitting machine, I thought ‘I can totally do this if she's doing it!’
I'm always keeping an eye on Irish designers like Pearl Reddington who interned for me. It's really beautiful to see where she's gone with her designs.
I love Ace & Jig - they make all their fabrics in India.
One of the big knitwear brands I look at is Babaà ; Marta is married to an Irish guy, so I used to know her a few years ago. Babaà uses Spanish cotton, Spanish linen & Spanish wool; Marta gets to meet the sheep and I'm like ‘Why can't I do that in Ireland?!’
What a good question, Liadain.
Liadain’s beautiful designs can be found on her website; join her newsletter for 10% off your first order and follow her on Instagram.
Dr Aoife Long is a fashion writer by night and a creative director at Spirit and Luxury by day.
Gorgeous! I have admired Liadain's work for so long, so nice to read about her background and perspectives.