Style in knitted textiles and fashion

The presented research relates the basic elements of the art theory with the concept of style and fashion design. The objective of the research was to determine how style is manifested in knitting in different periods of fashion seasons. The collections of three designers were compared: Missoni, Issey Miyake and Sonia Rykiel, in four different seasons in three different years. The basic artistic elements used in the presented research were: point, line, light-dark and colour together with syntactic rules. A combination of different elements and syntactic rules refers to different artistic languages, which have their own artistic grammar, i.e. a different style. All three investigated fashion designers used knitting in their collections as a significant element which defined their style. Different knitting technologies as well as different yarns made of synthetic or natural fibres in all colour spectra significantly influence the surface of a knitted fabric. Even when the technology is the same, the use of different materials, structures, colours, etc. creates various unique surfaces. The method used in the presented research was a style matrix which is developed from the axiomatic system. Only the part dealing with the language of fine arts and the pictorial speech – the style of a certain designer and a certain work of art/knitted fabric was used. After the selected three designers were examined through all the periods, it was concluded that each designer can be characterised by his own style. Despite the influencing fashion trends, all the compared designers still retained their own style, their own techniques, their own inspirations.