This Crochet Artist Is Making Outfits for Groovy Girls, Not Grannies
Crochet may be your grandma’s wardrobe staple, but the retro knit is having a serious fashion moment. It was all over the recent spring 2020 runways: Altuzarra styled crocheted vests under suits, Giambattista Valli showed crocheted bras with summery skirts, and Marni even did full-length dresses with crocheted florals. The message for the season was that the crafty material could still look modern and chic. But if you’re looking for a zanier, more accessible take, there’s Elizabeth Kaya Morgan and her knits that look as though a granny took a hit of acid before sitting down to crochet.
Morgan is a 21-year-old crochet artist based in Leeds, England. Through her brand, GimmeKaya, she hand-makes and sells her crochet pieces out of her bedroom, something she has been doing for three years but just recently turned into a full-time gig. On her Instagram page, you’ll find a psychedelic feed of her colorful pieces. The groovy aesthetic has been a hit with festival girls, many of whom Morgan meets at shows as an avid festivalgoer herself. “I was once at a festival, and a girl ran up to me and said she’d recently ordered a matching set off of me, and I told her I was making it in my tent,” Morgan says. Morgan’s specialty is five-piece outfits—from bucket hats to heart-print miniskirts—that all have the same Lisa Frank-ish style of crochet. (Usually, she sells the pieces on Depop, but she has currently closed orders and will be opening up her own website in the coming weeks.)
Morgan developed a love of crochet through thrifting and vintage shopping. “As a child, I was brought up shopping in charity shops, and I can remember always being drawn to old crochet blankets and knitted textiles,” she says. “It wasn’t until I purchased my first piece of handmade crochet clothing that I decided to give it a go myself.” She learned how to crochet as a teenager by studying YouTube videos. “As soon as I got the hang of different stitches, I went straight into trying to make my own clothes,” she says. “It took a lot of trial and error and failed attempts, but it’s finally something I’m really good at.”
The artist’s best model is herself. On her feed, she regularly models her own quirky creations, from sunflower-print sweaters to psychedelic bucket hats. “When I create a crochet collection, I’ll always keep the first sample for myself, which I love styling with my own wardrobe,” she says. When designing new pieces and putting together outfits, she particularly enjoys looking to different fashion eras for inspiration, seeking out crochet pieces from the 1960s or 1970s and then giving them a fresh new feel. “Crochet can be considered an outdated textile, but I think there’s something special about it,” she says.
Morgan’s love of secondhand clothing also extends to her sustainable practices as a designer, which she enforces wherever she can. Each piece is made to order and made to measure, with no materials wasted. The artist is also conscious of which materials she uses. “There is a huge debate over whether cotton or acrylic [yarn] is more sustainable, as there are obvious faults with both,” she says. “After consulting with my acrylic yarn supplier, I discovered that their yarns are spun in a way that very [few] microfibers will shed in the wash or end up in our oceans, and their factory workers are very well looked after.”
As she carries on her craft while social distancing at home, Morgan says her prime focus is to continue creating these mood-boosting crochet pieces, which continue to bring joy both to her customers and herself. “There is definitely power in wearing joyous and outgoing clothes [right now],” she says.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
