Knitting kit packaging doesn’t get slicker than this. Sure, there is Wool and the Gang which has a fun, hipster vibe, but Nikki Gabriel delivers the goods in an intellectualized style that makes WatG look positively giddy by comparison. (No disrespect, WatG —much appreciation for what you do!)
The serialized nature of Gabriel’s Construction series is reminiscent of Conceptual Art of the 1960s and 70s. Sol LeWitt’s Incomplete Open Cubes (1974) comes to mind. And the DiY aspect of a kit is something like LeWitt’s Wall Drawings, except without the certificate and the artworld price-tag.
How awesome is it that the kit works on both a conceptual and practical level? You don’t even have to knit —just put the kit on display in your studio loft and immediately boost your cool factor. (Be sure to throw around names like Merleau-Ponty and Hegel and terms like “serialization” and “reductivism” when your friends come by for maximum effect.)
Nikki blogs here
The Design Files interviews Nikki here
Stylist Pia Jane Bijkerk posts about her Construction cardigan here
