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My Thoughts On The BT Winter 15 Collection.


These are my favorite designs from the new collection. Photos borrowed from Brooklyn Tweed.

I'm a big fan of Brooklyn Tweed patterns and I've knitted quite a few of them already. Actually the four last projects I've finished have all been BT designs: Hellebore, Ondawa, Wheaten, Hawser... And I love all of them. 

I was really looking forward to the new collection. I have been praising the BT Fall 14 collection on this blog more than once and I still want to knit everything from it (it's not possible to have too many cabled fisherman-style sweaters, is it?). The following Wool People 8 collection was a bit of a let-down for me, but that was expected as I usually enjoy the BT collections more than the Wool Peoples. 

So on Tuesday when the newest collection came out I was really excited (I was also sick at home so I had nothing else to do but to wait and be excited). They had been posting teaser photos of the collection on their Instagram feed for a few weeks before the launch, and when I read about the inspiration for the collection I was already sold: art, history, Dutch painters, everything I love! Oh we are right in my wheel house!

Teaser photos setting the mood for the BT Winter 15 collection. Photos are from Brooklyn Tweeds Instagram feed.

So when I saw the collection, my first reaction was blah. Blah, blah, blah. I guess I had such high expectations that they could not be met.

My favorites from the collection were Cordova, Alvy and Carpeaux, I didn't really like anything else. And even though I like Cordova and Alvy, I think they are really similar to the fisherman style knits from the BT Fall 14 and frankly I like the latter more. Cordova reminds me of the Ondawa pattern from the BT Fall 14 collection (both designed by Michele Wang, one of my favorite designers) and Alvy bears a lot resemblance with Backbay, also published in the same fall collection (again, both designed by the same designer, this time Jared Flood). 

Corova from the BT Winter 15 collection on the left, Ondawa from the BT Fall 14 on the right. Photos borrowed from Brooklyn Tweed.

Alvy on the left, Backbay on the right. Both have similar moss stitch and honeycomb motifs. Photos borrowed from Brooklyn Tweed.

Carpeaux is the only one I put in my Ravelry queue. Other than that, I thought the collection was boring, unimaginative and quite unwearable; like the Chainlink pullover which looks pretty but I doubt I could ever pull it off in the real world. I also found the collection to be quite incoherent, and the pieces don't work well together (for example I think the Nomad is really out of place in this collection).  I liked the colors though.
I was expecting so much more it drawing inspiration from the Dutch masters and everything. Is this all you came up with, really? I was waiting for something that really digs deep into the costumes, shapes and artistic influences from that period of time. I was also disappointed that the patterns didn't have any mention of the sources for inspiration: I would have wanted to know where the names came from, what paintings they were inspired by and being art history lover, just reading something a bit deeper about the pieces.  Now it feels like the "inspiration" was more like an "afterthought": something to pull the pieces together rather than the initial source for imagination.

I have a lot to knit from the BT Fall 14 collection so I'll just concentrate on it while waiting for the next BT collection...

What are your thoughts on this collection?

Comments

  1. So interesting to hear that you prefer the BT collections over the Wool People ones. I am the opposite. One of the reasons I enjoy the Wool People collections so much is that the construction of the garments seem so much more interesting. I am really curious about how the addition of Norah Gaughan will play out because I thought her pieces were so different from the rest. I agree that in general the collection lacks coherence. And now that you mention it, it is disappointing that this is the best they could come up with Dutch masters inspiration. Maybe this time Jared Flood will talk about the art inspirations when he blogs about the collection.

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    Replies
    1. I usually find the BT collections to have garments that work better together as an overall collection and to be more in unison, but I also love seeing the creativity of the designers in the Wool People collections. I've also found many new favorite designers through them, such as Kazekobo and Alexis Winslow.

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  2. This collection was a little bit disappointing for me too! But I think it might just stem from all the hype and anticipation, especially with the hugely popular BT Fall 14 setting a very high bar.

    From what I understand, only the pieces photographed in the dark background were inspired by art history, the others by a Diane Keaton film. I can see it in the use of colour and definitely in the styling and photography but I would have really enjoyed a little bit of a backstory on each piece as well. My favourite piece is Carpeaux, especially the back, and I very much like the darker/red Agnes. I'm not really feeling the 70s look of the other pieces, it feels kinda stuffy to me, but I am interested to see what other knitters will come up with, to see them in other colours.

    I think my favourite thing about the collection wasn't a garment though but the news of Norah Gaughan joining BT, she's brilliant, can't wait to see what else she'll come up with!

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    1. I agree with you about Norah joining the BT team, it was also the most interesting thing about this collection :)

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  3. It is true that when I fist saw the collection it was not as exciting as some of the others but also, as you said, I think that everyone's expectations were very high.
    I was looking forward to see at least one design for men in each inspiration theme but I guess that we will have to wait for the BTmen new collection this spring! And this brings me to Norah! She has some amazing designs for men so my expectations are (again) very high!

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    Replies
    1. You have a good point about including designs for men in each collection, never thought of that before but I agree it would be a better option than making separate collections for men only!

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