Kit Willow’s positive impact collection, Kitx, is coming along quite nicely (despite the hurdles of manufacturing ethical fashion). She opened a shop in the Paddington neighborhood of Sydney in 2015, and the label recently caught the attention of Emma Watson, the eco-minded actress. On Willow’s first morning of Paris sales, she received a request from Watson’s stylist for a new dress that features paillettes made from recycled plastic bottles. Those paillettes were literally years in development. That is what we’re talking about when we say hurdles. But Willow and her collection wear their challenges lightly. To look at her new clothes you wouldn’t guess their do-gooder, green-leaning intentions, even though they are many. Through Nest, the nonprofit that supports global artisans through supply chain transparency and sustainable development, she employs weavers in Varanasi, India, who hand-loomed the delicate metallic-dot silk she used on wispy bohemian dresses.
In the past, Willow has draped angular shapes—squares and rectangles. This season, her starting point was the circle, and it gave the collection a lilting sensibility; the rounded shapes of her patterns created soft ruffles or petal-like folds down the front of romantic tops and dresses. The circle was also a decorative motif on golden yellow and emerald pieces that featured a meticulous Indian dyeing technique akin to Japanese shibori. The red of a 1930s-ish tea dress was made using an all-natural plant-based dye, Rubia cordifolia, said to have natural healing properties. Again, you’d never know details like that, but isn’t it encouraging to realize that there’s a designer working along such thoughtful, innovative lines?
