Sweeven
@my.sweeven
☆♡☆
@my.sweeven ☆♡☆
Fashion designer since 2021, Sweeven tries to recreate the beauty and harmony she observes in nature. She also explores how crafts and historical womenswear can translate into contemporary clothing.
Photographed by Connory Ballantyne, @connorytheballantyne
‘‘Back in my third semester of College, I was working on a personal project in a design class, though I felt I was missing content as I had no particular art form that I was working on for research. This led me to pick up cheap yarn and knitting needles from a store, in hopes of picking up a new medium.’’
Sweeven began knitting in October 2021 but quickly switched to using a crochet hook a few days later.
‘‘Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it, and realized that I liked working with my hands.’’
She then worked on a few crochet accessories and garments, until she started feeling bored with herself which led to knitting again.
‘‘That is when I decided to try knitting again in late spring 2022, and I haven't stopped learning since then! For the past year, I have been exploring different ways to use raw fiber materials, such as nuno felting, wet felting, and weaving.’’
‘‘To me, vulgarity is being free to express what you are feeling in an honest way. Although vulgarity has a relatively negative connotation, I believe that you can be vulgar without being offensive or rude to others, you can be vulgar in an uplifting way. I think that it's also possible for vulgarity to be a way to be honest with yourself, exposing what you really are, so that you can find ways to improve positively.’’
‘‘I do think that some media should be censored. I have seen violent content before on lnstagram and Facebook that was disturbing, and had no trigger warning. It's really concerning how many negative comments I see on instagram posts everyday, people often comment things without thinking about the person on the receiving end. I feel like social media is focused on censorship of the body, particularly with women expressing themselves. In my opinion, there is not enough of a focus on masking harmful comments.’’
Sweeven has never been censured on social media but often hears about others in the knitwear community whose posts get deleted due to the models' bodies showing through the loosely knit garments. A lot of accounts are getting shadow-banned as a result, limiting people from interacting with their work.
‘‘As a person, I am introverted and like to stay in the comfort of my home to work on different projects accompanied by my cat. I like to think that I am a curious person, as I enjoy exploring different mediums surrounding fiber arts.’’
As a designer, Sweeven is more material driven. She starts by choosing the colors and textures that she wants to use for a project, and let these inspire the final outcome. When purchasing any supplies, she tries to stay away from any early clothing ideas, as she often ends up using these materials in ways she would have never imagined. For instance, the colors can often look different in person, but she always tries to find a way to pair them with other yarns to compliment their color.
The designer enjoys the look of irregularities, which she tries to recreate by combining contrasting materials. She doesn’t describe herself as a conceptual person, the ideas of crafts, femininity, and harmony with nature are reoccurring throughout her work and are reflected in her intuitive choices.
