Sweater weather is better because of this Brooklyn babe. After studying in Cincinnati Mandy Kordal worked in the studios of Travota, J. Crew and Doo.ri before venturing out on her own to focus on ethical and sustainable knitwear. She launched her namesake line in 2012 and is now expanding into other weaves and women’s wear. A move that is making our closets very happy. Mandy also happens to be one of the coolest, sweetest women we know. As she worked on an exclusive sweater for our holiday collection, we went behind the scenes to find out more.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROCESS. WHAT PART DO YOU LOVE THE MOST? Our process starts with a general mood or inspiration and, from there, we start to source our fabrications and textiles. Sometimes we source based on an idea for a garment and other times we let the textiles drive our designs. From there, we start to sketch and also create knitted swatches to see how the yarn is going to react to certain textures and patterns. We then photograph and show the collection at market. Last step is putting our styles into production with our vendors based in New York and Peru.
My favorite part of this process is seeing the collection come together. It’s hard to imagine all of the pieces falling into place at the very beginning, but once the samples start arriving and you see it all styled together, it’s like the picture has finally come into focus and it feels so good!
