Fashion is an exercise in extroversion for Esther Vervliet

The IFM graduate’s interest in fashion also began with a simple observation: as a child, she watched her grandmother knitting and sewing, “which is a bit like a classic story.” Growing up just outside Brussels, Esther entered the prestigious art school La Cambre at just 17 years old, and through its rigorous undergraduate programme she established strong technical skills in pattern cutting, design, and construction. She was also pushed to think creatively: “I really learned to cut in a classic way and then how to transform it in creative ways.” She began hand-knitting solely for her own enjoyment, but when she met a student from the IFM MA Knitwear during an internship at Y/Project, Esther knew what she wanted to do next.

At IFM, Esther discovered how enriching it was to be surrounded by a cohort of students who had completed their BA courses all over the world. “It’s super international and so everyone had a really strong universe, but everyone was so different,” she says. “And so I think you learn a lot when you see really different universes.” Esther’s own design universe is introspective, and her creative process orbits the key practices of observing the body, sketching and researching before she begins to play with yarns, gauges and patterns.

“I really thought about what was interesting for me in the body map and I realised that it’s the strong way that those women could really translate their emotion into drawing, into pattern.” – Esther Vervliet

But how do you turn something as elusive and changeable as an emotional state into clothes? She began by sketching postures she caught herself or friends making in awkward situations, moments when body language gave away their feelings: “For me, everything is really about body and posture.” Esther returned to the striking body map artworks created by the Bambanani Women’s Group that she had referenced in a previous project for inspiration and guidance: “I really thought about what was interesting for me in the body map and I realised that it’s the strong way that those women could really translate their emotion into drawing, into pattern.”

Esther expertly translates the emotional and physical state of shyness into knitwear through her dynamic use of materials and techniques. The introvert’s desire to hide but simultaneous knowledge that you reveal yourself anyway is expressed in a smock rib with an eye-like pattern, or in double-layer knit textiles with elements of transparency, and knitted lace that creates contrasting shapes and colours all in one piece. Esther often finds herself covering her own blushing cheeks with her hands, and in her collection this familiar gesture appears as an intarsia knit motif of languorous arms and hands reaching up a dress toward the wearer’s face, and a comforting hand outlined on a balaclava hood.

“I’m really glad I could have this classic technical learning prior, because doing tailoring in knitwear is obviously really different than doing tailoring in fabrics.” – Esther Vervliet

She also developed a technique using puffy yarn that creates volume, fashioning this into a jacket using a blend of the tailoring skills from her BA, and the new highly technical knitting skills she developed at IFM. “I’m really glad I could have this classic technical learning prior, because doing tailoring in knitwear is obviously really different than doing tailoring in fabrics. But it’s because I had all these skills before that I could really find a way to adapt it to knitwear.” This is one of the things that distinguishes Esther as a designer: her eagerness to adapt her skills to whatever problem is at hand.

In an industry like fashion, which has a reputation for being home to big personalities, can shyness be an asset? In Esther’s case, shyness as both a subject and a methodology has brought a unique level of empathy and thoughtfulness to her highly technical design work. “I think being shy makes you more empathic and you have this sensibility, to see when other people are not feeling comfortable.” By the same turn, her education challenged her shy disposition, like the ‘jury’ process that requires designers to present their work for critique. This pushed her to a new level of clarity and confidence in discussing her work, especially when it is so personal. But the trust Esther shared with students and teachers at IFM helped her to evolve, and she emerged from the course feeling optimistic: “I’m really happy I did IFM because they talk to you a lot about the fashion industry. So you’re kind of prepared. And also, I think the goal of my teachers at IFM is to try to make the knitwear industry evolve.”

Esther immediately began an internship as an assistant knitwear designer at KENZO after graduating, but she misses the tactile approach to development she practised in IFM. “My reflection on knitwear is that sometimes in reality it’s not as creative as we learn,” she shares, as it’s rare to work in a big studio that has the knitting machines in-house. “I really enjoy programming, because it’s really a way to understand what’s happening in knitwear. You can learn to program and directly experiment on the machine, and do this back-and-forth.” Her plan for the near future is to remain in Paris, because “sometimes you feel that everything is happening in Paris, London or New York…” and one of her goals is to “find a way to combine the technical and creative parts.” Characteristically then, her advice, though she hesitates to call it that, for fashion students is optimistic and hands-on: “I know that you discover it in the process.”