Teva Durham and the Art of Design

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Teva Durham's innovative designs are very special, each one unique, beautiful, a perfect marriage of concept and style.  Her acclaimed first book of knits, Loop-d-Loop, was followed by Loop-d-Loop Crochet, a collection that reflects her equal love for the hook.  See more of Teva's work at http://www.loop-d-loop.com.  

Visit her also at  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Loop-d-Loop-by-Teva-Durham/310293308050.  

For the loop-d-loop yarn line, see  tahkistacycharles.com

DORA: How did your interest in knit and crochet begin? Was it part of your environment growing up?

TEVA: My parents were artists who met in art school at Washington University in Saint Louis. I grew up just a few blocks off campus in a neighborhood of academics and creative types. My Dad taught art on the college level and his students and other artists would come by. We were exposed to many crafts of the era (early 1970s). I had a couple of simple looms. I loved to draw paper dolls and I designed outfits for them. My friend Leslie had many Barbies (I did not; my mother was into consciousness raising and burning your bra) and one summer I spent all my time over at her house designing and sewing outfits. My grandmother, who had a great sense of style and made her own clothes, taught me to knit when I was nine or so but I did not get obsessed with it until I was in my twenties. She encouraged me to sew as well and bought me fabric to design my own 6th grade prom dress.

DORA: Many of us in the design world came by way of drastically different paths. Can you tell us about your background and training? 

TEVA: My parents divorced and I moved with my Mom to New York City and attended the High School of Performing Arts as a Drama major. There, students created our own costumes and I started collect vintage clothing from thrift stores and flea markets. I loved the transformative quality of fashion. I amassed quite a wardrobe and a particularly a collection of sweaters (my mother counted 70 at one point and she used a dowel and canvas to made a special organizer to hang them on the wall. Sometimes when we were low on money I would take some of my clothes to Astor Place or Canal Street, and sell them. In my late teens/early twenties also worked at some snooty SoHo boutiques and as a fit and showroom model. In my twenties I studied theatre in London for a bit and it was there that I became obsessed with knitting. It was the 80s and Patricia Roberts and Kaffe Fassett were big. I gave up on the acting thing in my late twenties and returned to school for writing and English Lit. I lucked into a job editing and writing an accessory trend report and actually got to cover the Seventh on Sixth collections. I was smack in the midst of the fashion world getting on pr company guest lists and getting lots of swag. I learned a lot about fashion forecasting. I also worked seasonally for a service that made trend boards and look books writing the captions, and eventually speeches, for someone who was one of the best in the business. When the publication I was editing went under I asked myself where I wanted to work next and decided it was Vogue Knitting (VK). It took three months of plying them with letters and writing and knitting samples to get hired. 

DORA: When did you first see yourself as a designer?

Hard to say. Certainly not yet when I first saw my name in print in Vogue Knitting. My goal was always to have my own signature style that was recognizable and true to me. I remember interviewing Norah Gaughan to write a blurb and remarking that I could always tell upon seeing a sweater of hers that she had designed it. I wanted to achieve this. At an unsure, somewhat low-point in my career, after I had started my website and pattern collection, when my daughter was a month old, I was teaching and working in a yarn shop with Olivia in a baby carrier. Melanie Falick came for a book signing and said something like, “Teva Durham what are you doing here?” And she told me that every time she saw a design by me she could recognize it as mine. That really validated me to myself. And in working with Melanie on my first book, I think my designs became even more of my unique expression.  

TEVA: What motivates your designing? Who are your influences?

See answer above. I am trying to express something of my own character--kind of a theatrical, method acting approach—trying to embody the sweater. 

DORA: When designing, what is your process for going from idea to finished product?

TEVA: My process is sometimes what Elizabeth Zimmerman calls “unventing”. I spend a lot of time sketching and brainstorming and pouring over stitch dictionaries. I find stitch patterns which interest me and I work up a swatch and see what it could be evolved to, what characteristics a stitch repeat has that could shape an outline or piece of a silhouette. I often work out a pattern on a dress form. With experience, it has become easier to figure out the math to get a garment that will fit and look like my sketch. 

DORA: How do you decide on what projects to put in a book?

TEVA: I propose projects to the editor and come up with an outline, or in a meeting with Tahki Stacy Charles if it is a yarn pattern leaflet. I keep in my season, difficulty level, etc.

DORA: What yarns do you like to work with? Are there different fibers, weights, that are more suitable to knit or crochet?

TEVA: I like yarns with character. One’s that have juxtaposition of modern/ancient, rough/smooth, delicate/strong, masculine/feminine… You really just have to try them out, adjusting needle or hook and adjusting stitch patterns until you get a fabric you want to work with. 

DORA: Tell us about your career path to where you are now.

TEVA: After VK, I wanted to learn more about the garment industry design room, so I interned at Dana Buchman in sweater product development. I also worked a bit as a Spec Tech for Limited/Express, basically diagramming purchased sweaters for the factory to knock off. I continued to contribute to knitting publications and also did private label sweaters for other designers and started my own line of knits that eventually I sold as patterns and kits to knitters. When I had my daughter, doing a book was a welcome development. Three years ago I developed a yarn and pattern line through Tahki Stacy Charles. In 2007 I published an all-crochet book, Loop-d-Loop Crochet (STC Craft). And I am just finishing my third book for STC Craft which is all knit lace.

DORA: What was it like working for VK?

TEVA: VK was part of Butterick when I worked there. The offices were in the Butterick building and had a floor of women sewing and pressing garments and developing the famous sewing pattern line. There was an extensive library of fabric and trims and also an archive with an archivist who oversaw all the film and illustrations from the magazines. There was an in house photo studio for some shoots. The last time they had decorated was in the 1970s and the place had a Hermann Miller feel. I learned on my feet there, doing everything from writing articles to designing in-house garments to proofing patterns, and met just about all of the knitting luminaries. I loved seeing the knit-downs and the design submissions becoming fashion stories and seeing garments as they arrived and then the photo spread. Working there was kind of like going behind the curtains in Oz, some of the Wizardry was lost. But it inspired me to focus on design rather than writing.

DORA: Do you think crochet has suffered from poor image? Why?

TEVA: Perhaps the poor image is due to the many afghan projects in discount acrylic yarns. But there are designers doing exciting work in crochet and a resurgence of crochet fashions in boutiques and on catwalk. I find Irish Crochet, in particular, incredibly beautiful. And would love to have time to create some designs using the Irish Crochet technique where there are raised outlines as motifs are stuffed with cord.

DORA: How did the relationship with Tahki Stacy Charles develop? How did you go about designing the yarns? What was the process here -- did you specify fibers, weights, other characteristics?

TEVA: A different yarn company approached me about doing a yarn for me. They had noticed a huge spike in sales of a particular yarn and found the cause was a design in my book. I decided to see if there were any other yarn companies that might have interest that might be a better fit. TSC was the best match. I wrote a report for them on the characteristics that I like in yarn and gave them samples of specific yarns and how I would want them improved upon. For instance, I gave them Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and said now if this were cotton and cashmere… I wanted a dk that would expand and bloom to suit many gauges.

DORA: What do you think the knit and crochet consumer want? Do you feel there is a need to create simpler projects than what you really want to do?

TEVA: I don’t mind doing some simpler and some more complex projects. It seems to me that with ravelry and self-publishing opportunities that many knitters want to become designers themselves. And many of us seasoned designers are trying to address this new audience and offer design courses. There are so many patterns out there, I don’t know how a knitter can decide what to make next these days. I have always seen my patterns as a kind of adventure, I think I take knitters (and crocheters) on an adventure to places they might not have been through novel construction or interesting technique so that they take away something more than a beautiful object, an insight into away of designing.

DORA: Would you like to see changes in the knit/yarn industry? What would your dream world look like?

TEVA: I think there is still room for growth. We now have high fashion at big box retailers--I never would have thought that Liberty of London would be at Target. Over the past couple of years the fashions shown at TNNA have improved but still have not caught up to today’s esthetic. I would like to see less of those afghans and sweaters that no one would want to wear let alone buy yarn for and make. Many, many people have still not been exposed to lovely quality yarns and the joy of making a special garment with your own hands.