Emma Gudmundson dives into the deep

Colours, lines and symmetry are the key elements of Emma’s designs. “I’m not very good with asymmetrical clothes, I want my work to be perfect,” she says. Inspired by underwater creatures, she created a collection that translates organic animal shapes and their opacity into wearable clothing. All of this in a bright and contrasting palette including greens, oranges and blues. By combining floats and hook-up stitches, she also formed 3D surfaces that add movement and dimension to the knitted garments.

Gudmundson’s creative process is all about experimentation. “A pre-decided idea doesn’t work for me, I have to go with the flow,” she says. After looking for ideas in abstract art, she needs to capture them in big-scaled garments, “I make lots of them and drape them on myself, then I adjust the numbers for the knitting. It is a lot of mathematics and technique.” It is not an easy process, but the most difficult part was creating an entire collection in a short period of time. “The way I work is almost like working blindly, so when I had a few outfits ready that I really liked, I struggled to make the rest of them look similar,” she says.

“I had to play it safe because the pandemic made everything harder when it came to the materials.”

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help Emma much either. “I had to play it safe because the pandemic made everything harder when it came to the materials,” the designer says. “I feel like I could’ve worked better with them if I had been at school.” There, she normally has access to a knitting lab with a varied assortment of yarns, but this time, she had to choose the colours for the collection very early and make them work regardless of the limitations.

Overall, her university experience was very positive. It was a period of self-growth. “I evolved a lot during my time there,” says Gudmundson. “I’m especially grateful about the knitting course we had because it was something that scared me. I had tried knitting before, but it didn’t go very well. Now I’ve opened myself up to it.”

“It’s been very stressful with all those deadlines, the texts you’re supposed to hand in and also the critiques that you get.”

No matter how fun the experience was for Emma, fashion design is always surrounded by  a looming sense of stress. “It’s been very stressful with all those deadlines, the texts you’re supposed to hand in and also the critiques that you get,” she says. “But in a way it is also positive that we learned to cope with that, it prepared me for real life.” And if you are willing to study fashion too, follow Gudmundson’s advice: “If you feel like something is just not your thing, don’t stress about it. Everyone has things they’re good at. During the first days of school, I thought I had to be the best in everything and overwork each design, and in reality, you don’t have to do that.”

“I really want to make my own things, and maybe have a job on the side too.”

Now that she has graduated, Emma is ready to take on the next step – starting her own fashion label, where she also wants to create her own bags. “I really want to make my own things, and maybe have a job on the side too,” she says. With a wide range of opportunities to explore, she is now very busy. “There is a lot going on at the moment,” she says. But no matter where this new project might take her, she will stay true to herself. Emma Gudmundson’s gut will always lead the way.