Transcript of Interview between Sarah Spruch-Feiner and Carolyn Yim
January 6, 2017
Backstory: Sarah had reached out to me for information for an article she was writing, that concerned materials. Our conversation developed into a delightful range that included female role models, and Planned Parenthood--her mother is very involved and on the board of directors.
SSF: Some of our readers are totally new to PLY—KNITS—what should we know about the brand?
CY: PLY—KNITS is a collection of knitwear about building a wardrobe of uncomplicated, elegant clothing. We love knitwear as they are easy to wear, sheds wrinkles, and travels well. We are not trend-driven, and look to aesthetics that quietly play up the woman’s form. Customers enjoy our natural, quality materials.
We mix modern digital knitting techniques with inspiration from vintage knitwear, pulled from archives from our three-generation family knitting factory. For instance, one of our knitted tanks for Spring is a style that’s part of a sweater set 30 years ago, from my mother’s own collection. It fits beautifully—we did not even need to tweak it. Classic, non-trendy style is always contemporary.
SSF: What makes PLY—KNITS different?
CY: We try to conserve resources as much as possible. We source deadstock or vintage yarns, knit fully-fashioned to reduce material waste, and use water-conserving knitting techniques. We have something exciting coming down the line: a new capsule collection of upcycled, traceable cashmere sweaters. How we made them is fascinating. We had to break down vintage cashmere sweaters, respin them into yarn, and knit them into new styles.
SSF: Can you speak a bit about how PLY—KNITS got started?
CY: In my closet, I have a creamy, hefty crew-neck cashmere sweater from my father. It was passed down to him from my grandmother. It is terrifically dense and soft. I was frustrated that I could not find a cashmere sweater like that anywhere today. I wanted to learn more about knitwear’s supply chain, so I returned to Hong Kong in 2014 to my family’s knitting factory, visited knitters in Scotland, and worked with spinners in Italy. Everyone has their own best practices, which was interesting to compare. I came back to develop my own method of making knitwear with dense heft and soft finishing. Our 12-ply Ezra Cardigan is the fruit of those efforts and an homage to my grandmother. It is in a grandmother-cardigan style with a tapered silhouette.
SSF: Why merino and cashmere?
CY: I prefer natural fibers such as merino and cashmere over synthetics for two reasons. First is out of daily comfort and wear. Synthetics lock in odorous bacteria and stink, whereas natural fibers don’t. We want our customers to be comfortable and feel natural throughout the day, and not worry about things like how they smell. Second, for the health of the planet, natural fibers can completely biodegrade in landfill in a few years. Synthetics are not only non-biodegradable, but also releases toxic waste into the environment they decompose in. We try our best to choose materials that conserve resources and minimize pollution throughout its lifecycle.
CY: We like different materials for different occasions. We like using cashmere for our dressier tops because their velvety, sensual sheen creates an elegance. We prefer using merino for our casual styles for their peppery, dry durability. For instance, all our coats use merino outside to stand up better to weathering. In our merino pants, we use a high-twist merino so it sheds wrinkles and holds an assured shape.
SSF: Can you speak further to the use of merino and cashmere? Why it was chosen?
CY: When you touch our merino and cashmere knitwear, you’ll find the weight different. We really like playing with weights—or technically, ‘plys’—to reconsider how we conventionally wear merino and cashmere. The majority of sweaters in the market are just 2-ply. Our collection has a wide breadth of plys, from paper-thin to dense knitwear. We start from the superfine 0.5-ply Stein Sweater, all the way up to the hefty 12-ply Ezra Cardigan. That means you can wear our knitwear all year round and layer them together, and have a wardrobe that can easily integrate into four seasons.
SSF: Is your merino and cashmere different than what most people are used to—if so, how, and why?
SSF: How central to the brand's identity is fabric as a whole? Why is this the case?
CY: When you make knitwear, you are creating your own fabric each time, which allows for a lot of creativity. For instance, our merino pants uses a patent-pending merino fabric we developed ourselves. They’re so densely knit that they keep you warm and repels water, all without the use of chemical finishing like Gortex. We want our customers to go through a wintry day feeling warm and dry, upholding an uncomplicated elegance.
When develop your own fabric, you offer something valuable to customers that they can’t find elsewhere.
CY: Getting new clothes used to be about choosing a bolt of cloth, to take to your tailor or couturier to fit to yourself. With the explosion of fast-fashion, we lost our own familiarity and vocabulary around fabrics and cloth.
Now, I believe the equilibrium is tipping back. We have a lot more small, niche designers curious about materials, and customers asking questions about how their clothing is made.
This is thanks in part to e-commerce. Not only can niche designers own a online storefront, but e-commerce also allows for a soapbox where brands can deeply educate customers on material information. I run my business on Shopify, where its technological help and automation is very useful. I have much more freedom and independence for sourcing trips, and get time to focus on developing better fabrics.
At once, the ease of e-commerce means the barrier to entry for creating a brand is lower than before, so it is important to me for PLY—KNITS to offer something unique that customers can’t find anywhere else. Furthermore, the danger of e-commerce is good lighting and skillful Photoshop touch-ups can easily mask mediocre materials. It is all the more paramount for us to maintain the core value of good, special materials in order to stand out.
SSF: Do you have any thoughts on the future of fabrics? How PLY—KNITS plays into the 2017 retail scene?