SIRI JOHANSEN

knItWEAR VISIOnARY

C/O: KENZO/ BURBERRY/ PRINGLE OF SCOTLAND/ WYP

Images—Care of WYP. Photographers: Marlen Keller @marlen_s_keller / Guten Fiore @guenfiore
Interview—Sacha Lovell & Morgan Rudolph

https://wasteyarnproject.com

@wasteyarnproject

In her own words, Siri Johansen was [and most likely still is] pretty bad at sports. Scrambling for answers, Siri’s parents employed a committee of Norwegian osteologists and accredited olympic sports scientists who failed to detect a single athletic bone in her body*. Shortly thereafter Siri’s parents conceded defeat and sent her to art school.

*this introduction is utter bullshit embellished for dramatic effect. We are certain Siri is a sporting wizard.

Fast forward to the present day, Siri Johansen is deep dyed into the yarn of contemporary luxury knitwear, earning her stripes at Burberry and Pringle of Scotland before spearheading knitwear at Kenzo. Here she was exposed to the concerning amount of leftover materials, which would inspire Waste Yarn Project, a slow fashion initiative dedicated to closing the loop in knitwear one sweater at a time. Waste Yarn Project pride themselves on waste conscious a-gendered garments, lovingly crafted by hand. Get to know this knitwear visionary.

Firstly, I’d love to know about your early life. What was it like growing up in Norway? My family moved around a lot when I was little but settled in a small suburban village outside Oslo from when I was around 7. It was close to a forest which was a great playground growing up. We also had a cabin in the mountains so every weekend during winter we would go skiing. My memories from childhood are filled with lots of nature and outdoor activities. My dad’s family are from the north of Norway, the Lofoten islands, and I would often spend part of my summers there with my brothers on my grandparent’s boat. My parents had high hopes for me to become an athlete of some sort and made me try literally every kind of sport until they realised I was pretty bad at it and finally sent me to art classes instead.

Do you have any childhood photos you’d like to share? Please share any stories behind them. This one above is from a carnival in a small town in Lofoten called Henningsvær. My grandma dressed me up in her clothes, she was a fancy lady. I remember a boy asked to be photographed with me. I said no.

When travelling overseas as an Australian, people often joke about us riding kangaroos to school as kids (which definitely doesn’t happen, they can be pretty aggressive actually). Are there any surprising parts of Norwegian culture that we might not know about? Hm. In the winter if there is enough snow people ski to work and school! :). Also you have to buy all alcohol (apart from beer) in a special shop called Vinmonopolet (the wine monopoly), this can be a bit inconvenient when you’re not used to it, as you can’t buy alcohol after 6pm.

What was your relationship like with fashion growing up? My cousin Trude had a clothing store in Oslo that I ‘grew up’ in from a young teenager. I spent a lot of time helping out on everything from handing out flyers, making signs, coming with her to fairs etc. It definitely helped shape my interest in the world of fashion. I also had an amazing art teacher that taught me to sew and make my own clothes, luckily for me there was no Facebook back then to record all my creations!

Is knitting a big part of Norwegian culture? Yes! Huge! When I was at school knitting (as well as woodwork, sewing and cooking) was part of the curriculum. Unfortunately I don’t think it is anymore.

What made you decide to move to Paris? Humberto and Carole at Kenzo. I had my eyes set on NY but decided to give Paris a go after being offered a job at Kenzo.

What do you love the most about living there? I bought the apartment and gut renovated it so I love pretty much everything about it. It’s small but really well organised. Since my boyfriend moved in, he has added practical storage and furniture here and there. He’s a cabinet maker / woodworker. Also, love the area we live in, the 11th Arr. of Paris.

Hate? Mm don’t really hate anything, or maybe when I return from travels with big suitcases and we live on 5th floor with no lift. Also, would have liked another room now that the family has grown.

Tell me a bit about your first job there. Kenzo was my first and so far my only job in Paris. I was there from 2013 until 2020, so a long time. It was a really fun job-amazing team and lots of great travels. Humberto and Carol lived in NY so we went there a lot for meetings and I worked with factories in Shanghai, HK, Istanbul, Italy, and Portugal. Every season would normally start with an inspiration trip somewhere. I had freedom to manage my team and the collection without being micromanaged. I feel really lucky to have been part of this period-as lots have changed since, not just at Kenzo.

You’ve worked at some highly revered fashion houses; Kenzo, Burberry and Pringle of Scotland. What was it like working for them? Did they differ greatly in their design approach? At Burberry I had a crash course into the technical part of what it means to be a knitwear designer. I only specialised in knit at my MA so I only had 2 years of knit schooling before starting working. It was a great first job as I was given a lot of freedom to be creative and I spent a lot of time in our Italian factory developing swatches. This is where I found my love for the factory atmosphere and working with all the skilled people making the garments. The knitwear team was

“"I didn’t realise until I was ‘on my own’ how much I was still learning from my knit colleagues"”

pretty big at Burberry, I think we were 7/8 people on all the different lines. I worked on the mens show collection as well as the more commercial line. The research became a bit repetitive to me after a while, always rooted in British military or something British.

I was excited when Alistair Carr invited me to join his new team at Pringle of Scotland. There I was the only knitwear designer which was a huge change from being in a big team at Burberry. I didn’t realise until I was ‘on my own’ how much I was still learning from my knit colleagues, but at Pringle I worked directly with Alistair and his door was always open so it felt like a much more dynamic and natural way of working. And so much faster, instead of having to wait one or two weeks for a meeting to answer a question, which was often the case earlier. Also Alistair’s way of researching was super refreshing to me, it was very varied. It was a really intense and amazing year and a bit. I was really sad when it ended so quickly, as soon as Alistair told us he was leaving I resigned.

“”I didn’t realise until I was ‘on my own’ how much I was still learning from my knit colleagues””

At Kenzo I started working on the mens knitwear, taking over as head of knit after 3 years. Compared to my two previous jobs it was more independent way of working, with the creative directors living on a different continent. On a day to day I would work closely with head of men’s and women’s on the collections, then we would touch base with Humberto and Carol throughout the season.

How did your experience inform your ideas about waste and lead to you beginning WYP? It’s due to all my factory visits I got to experience and see first hand all the yarns that accumulate over time. This got my brain thinking and led to the idea of WYP. I suggested it to Sebastian, the owner of one of the manufacturers I worked with and he was into it!

Who’s one of the most interesting people you’ve met in your time working at these fashion houses? Oh difficult question. I think I’d have to go a bit cheesy and say all the amazing friends I’ve met along the way. Alistair Carr at Pringle was probably the most inspiring person I worked with. But also the people running or working in the factories-I’m still in touch with a lot of them.

The WYP marketing style is super playful and low-fi, almost the polar opposite to the likes of Burberry, Kenzo; established ‘houses’. Why did you choose to go down this road? It came very natural, it’s a style I like and I didn’t want it to feel too much like ‘marketing’. It’s been a really fun thing to work on with our graphic designer Pati.

Was there a trigger moment that made you decide you needed to start Waste Yarn Project or was the desire built over time? It was built and shaped over time, from seeing all the left over yarns at visits to factories, but the idea started more concretely at a residency I did in Senegal 2015. I had asked friends and family to donate left over yarns or unfinished knitting projects for me to take as materials to work with. I had no plan for what to do with it, so I let the space and stay dictate the work. A lot of the mini projects I started there have lived on in WYP. You can see a film my friend Ivana Bobic made from the residency here. It’s so beautiful and keeps inspiring me every time I see it.

“I like to think sheS still here, JUst in a DifferEnt shape givIng pEOple knit cuddlEs.”

The jumpers seem to all have Nordic names, are they named after people that you know? Yes most are friends or people that mean something to me. But some are names I just like. LÆRKE was a dear friend from college that passed away too early so it’s my personal tribute to her. I like to think she’s still here, just in a different shape giving people knit cuddles. YAYA is one of the guys working at the residency in Senegal, I was teaching him how to knit a hat, it even made the news in Al Jazeera!

You work alongside Sebastian Maes at WYP. How did this come to fruition? Tell me something funny about him. I first met Sebastian when I was at Burberry, he was then working for a knitwear manufacturer we used in Shanghai. Whenever me and my colleagues would come he was given the task to take us out for dinner and make sure we had a nice time. We had a lot of fun together and he showed us around like a local, which is always my preferred way of travelling and experiencing places! We kept in touch after I left Burberry, and when I joined Kenzo he had just started his own knitwear manufacturing company-So I introduced him as a supplier.

He’s a joy to work with, a doer, always positive and accepting of challenges. He is an inspirational entrepreneur, adventurous and always up for one last drink. For his 30th he rented a pirate ship and invited his best friends to come celebrate!

“fAvourite work trip was to monGolia
to meet the cashmere herders, travelling on non exiSting roads for hours on end, no connection, a lot of very good vodKa and the strangest mOst wild landscape I have ever seen”.

Are you eco-conscious about other things in your life too? We try to live as consciously as we can. Mostly buy second hand or products that we feel will last a long time, we also try to fix things when they break. I guess I’m guilty of a few too many flights to be a true eco-warrior.

Here is a section of my favourite part of the apartment. It’s of a shelf my partner made-it collects rocks from our travels, above is a drawing by Phillip Weisbecker. And on our terrace is a tree we planted when our son was born.

Are you a big traveller? Are there any particular trips you’ve been on that have inspired your practice? I love travelling!! I would say it’s my number one favourite thing! Japan is always a really inspiring place to visit, the craft and people there I love! Also China I love exploring-I try to hook on a trip somewhere new each time I go. I spent a month there with my partner Travis when we were developing the ‘wheel of fortune’ for WYP and we managed to visit amazing places like the Rong material design library. Another favourite ‘work’ trip was to Mongolia to meet the cashmere herders, travelling in an UAZ on non existing roads for hours on end, no connection, a lot of very good vodka and the strangest most wild landscape I have ever seen. Learning the sad truth of how the cashmere industry there has led to the country becoming a desert also made me question a lot about the industry I’m working in or maybe also question if and how I wanted to be in it.

Thanks Siri, keep in touch. •••