Fashion / Amber Hards Knitwear
Meet the Bristol knitwear designer pushing boundaries with her signature style
Amber Hards is a Bristol-based knitwear designer who uses texture and volume to create her signature style. A UWE Bristol fashion/textile alumni, she – like so many others – stayed on after her course and put down her roots here.
“I love what a creative hub it is. There are so many creative industries here and I love how connected we all are,” she says. Last year saw her not only marry her actor husband, but launch her brand Amber Hards Knitwear full time after giving up her job as a florist.
Amber Hards at work
Some of Amber’s Saturn Rings collection. Photos by Katy-Jane Riches
Amber’s passion for knitwear developed in her foundation year at UWE. “I’d never even seen a knitting machine before I got there, and as soon as I got on one it just clicked,” she says. Her pieces are all created on three domestic Brother knitting machines, which are all vintage.
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“I keep an eye on the machines all the time and repair and service them when different parts need it,” says Amber. A master of her craft, she now teaches workshops on machine knitting. “They’re incredible machines with so much scope for different fabrics. There’s a huge amount of techniques and yarns that can be used on them. I get really passionate about this when I teach machine knit lessons”.
Amber creates her knitwear pieces using vintage machines.
It’s clear Amber is passionate about her work: the showpiece from her graduate collection was a labour of love that took around 300 hours to make and has 70,000 rows. Often people think that using a knitting machine is a quick fix, but although the basic techniques are faster than hand knitting, many of the more complex techniques can take far longer.
She’s just as enthusiastic about the smaller pieces: “I also really love the scarves and snoods I make. I wear them everyday and although they’re not the most boundary pushing pieces I’ve ever made, I think they’re beautiful.”
Amber would love to see Bjork wearing her pieces. “She’s the most incredible artist and I’ve grown up with her music and videos. She really has the character and creativity to pull my show pieces off.”
Amber Hards Knitwear collection 2017
Photography by Sebastian Popov
Amber draws much of her inspiration from the textures seen in nature, but also art. Her latest collection is inspired by minimal artist Agnes Martin, Lili Dujourie and classicism painter John William Godward.
“I like to mix things together and I am a big fan of contrast, whether that be in different yarns, textures or silhouettes,” she says.
You can buy Amber’s knitwear from her Etsy shop Amber Hards Knitwear. For more information on her beginners machine knitting and scarf/snood workshops, visit www.amberhards.co.uk/Workshop.html
Read the blog from the writer of this story, Emma Karney, at Not My First Rodeo.
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