Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz LaBrocca.
Liz, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’ve spent most of my life making clothes in some way. When I was a kid, my mom was a quilter, and she used to buy me fabric as well. Instead of quilting, I spent hours in my room draping myself in crazy patterns and leopard prints. Then as I got into theater, I thought I wanted to be an actor, but I was always in the costume department help make the clothes. I even made my own dresses for a high school musical I was in.
Once I got to college, I immersed myself in the costuming world and spent four years working for Vassar College’s Drama Department. There I learned so much about clothing construction, drafting, draping, and I got to experiment with textile dyeing. During my senior year, I took up knitting so I would have something to do with my hands while I was reading and I fell in love.
Now, nearly ten years later, I’ve combined these passions into Knitprint and this year I’ll be releasing knitwear patterns as well as project bags, tote bags, and other accessories made with my own hand stamped textiles. I even have some classes in mind that I’d like to create to help other people lean into their creative sides, learn how to mend and make their own clothes, and feel more comfortable expressing themselves through their creativity.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Primarily I’m a knitwear and textile designer. As a knitter, I’m always experimenting and knitting up swatches of yarn that strike me–maybe it’s a color or a texture that grabs me or I have an idea for a certain collar or hemline. Often I have an idea for a piece of clothing I’d like to wear that doesn’t quite exist in the world of fashion available to me. Sometimes other people inspire me. I’m working on a sweater for my husband (as part of a promise to make him one piece for every year we’re married) that’s inspired by his love of the movie The Shining. I’m using the carpet motif from The Overlook hotel as inspiration for the main pattern.
As I dip my toes back into textile design after a bit of a hiatus, I’m really looking to explore repeated patterns, bright colors, as well as more original, one of a kind painterly designs. What I love about small batch dyeing is how personal and unique you can be each time you work on a piece. The inspiration for Knitprint came from my desire to begin hand stamping fabrics so I could print my own line of bags. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for ages and I finally have the time and resources to pursue it. Over the next few months, you’re going to start seeing a lot more sewing and printing on my Instagram and website.
I hope people come to Knitprint not only to enjoy my work but because they’re also interested in learning how to become more involved and intentional in the clothing and accessories they purchase. I love that the slow fashion movement is becoming popular because we’ve really lost touch with the production of the things we use on a daily basis. I look at an $80 shirt from a popular chain store and can tell it will be falling apart in just a few washes. And not only is it a bad investment for me, but it’s a bad investment in the people involved in making that shirt who probably aren’t being paid a fair wage to work with materials that are likely not coming from environmentally or ethically sourced mills.
I’m not saying I’m the perfect slow fashion citizen yet, but I am trying a lot harder to be more conscious of where and when I make a purchase and who I’m supporting by doing so. At Knitprint, one of my goals is to empower people to begin to pay more attention to their clothes and how they wear it. Not only do I want us to think about what we buy and make wiser choices, but I also want us to have more ownership in our clothes. Do you know how to mend a rip in a seam? Are you short like me and wish you didn’t have to cuff your pants four times? Are you tired of paying someone else to tailor your clothes for you? I want to be your resource and teach you how.
I’m also pulling a step back and exploring the creative process as a whole because I think there’s a lot of hesitancy to even begin to learn something like sewing or knitting because it seems complicated or because people are afraid to get creative and messy. I know I was very much held back by feelings of fear and insecurity around my work for many years, so my ultimate goal is just to help people create and make. If you think you’re going to find joy in making something, I hope I can encourage and inspire you to embrace it and go for it. I don’t want anyone to avoid making something because they fear judgment.
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
My biggest piece of advice is to make what you want when you want. Don’t think about what you should be making or what you could be making. Don’t get caught in comparison traps where you look at other people’s work and get discouraged. Everyone starts somewhere and we all are bad at things in the beginning. That’s normal. Get out all that bad, messy, shitty work and you’re going to start making the good stuff. I wish I could show you how many bad sweaters I made, how many weirdo things I’ve just ripped out, and how many times I’ve started from scratch. We’re all making bad things and making mistakes, it’s just not sexy to Instagram.
Never feel like the people you admire are not just as stressed, anxious, and upset about something not working out. They’re feeling it, too, I promise. I think everyone is. We’re just not in the habit of talking about it.
And make time for your work, but be patient with yourself. I knit wherever I go. Do I have to wait for an appointment? Take the bus? Hand my husband things from backstage while he’s giving an artist talk? I knit. I keep a notebook with me all the time to jot down ideas so I can come back to them later. He carries a sketchbook wherever we go so he can draw on the fly. Find little ways to work what you do in your daily life and routine and all those little pieces of progress eventually add up. Don’t feel short-changed by time, find little bits of it where you can and you’ll get somewhere.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find my work on my website and on Instagram. The best way to support me right now is to follow me on Instagram and join my mailing list on my website. From those platforms, you’ll be the first to know when new content is published and when new patterns and accessories are released.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.knitprintdesign.com
- Email: liz@knitprintdesign.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knitprint
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knitprint
- Other: https://www.ravelry.com/people/LizLaBrocca
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