KIT COUTURE
From bookazine no. 2, which has long been sold out, I have put all the articles from this issue online. You can find the full-text articles here #bookazine2
March 2020
Kit Couture is a DIY textile craft universe. Like so many other initiatives, Kit Couture sprang from a personal need and is driven by a profound personal commitment.
Lene Rix, who is 48 years old, is behind Kit Couture. When she was younger, she was a very active textile craft maker: knitting, sewing, crocheting, embroidering, felting. She rarely took much interest in the outcome but always fully absorbed in the process.
Then a CBS business degree programme took her in a different direction, followed by a job and family life, and her textile projects stayed in the drawer.
In 2013, during a family holiday, however, she felt the urge to revisit her old passion and searched online for something that could be delivered in a hurry before the holidays. Something that would not take all winter to finish and, above all, something that matched her aesthetic sensibilities, something she would want to wear when she was done. Her search was largely unsuccessful.
She then began to search the market more systematically, not just Denmark but also internationally, and although she did find sporadic elements they were few and far between, and none of them really matched what she was looking for.
An idea
A business idea was born, and in late 2014, while she was still working full-time as the CEO in a design firm, she launched Kit Couture: a design-based textile craft company that develops and sells embroidery, crocheting and knitting kits.
In 2014 she intended to make it an online business, supplemented by a number of workshops or courses. Now, some six years later, Kit is still online, but she also has a brick-and-mortar shop in Copenhagen.
The company has three full-time employees: Line Rix herself, a shop manager and a design manager.
There are also three part-time employees: Rachel Søgaard, who is now a partner, someone to take care of marketing and a designer. She also has assistants to pack online orders and a host of helpers to test knitting patterns and knit display models.
What sort of customer did you have in mind when you established Kit Couture?
‘My idea was that we would mainly sell to beginners, but I soon revised that idea. It turned out there was a big demand for more complex patterns too.’
Where do you meet your customers?
‘Social media are important, of course, but trade shows and events also offer good opportunities for making contact. Most of our trade is online, just as I had expected, but we are seeing more and more customers come into our shop – in particular after we moved to a new, bigger space about six months ago, the number of visitors to our brick-and-mortar shop has gone up considerably.
As we have discovered that our customers like to see and feel the products first-hand, we plan to have our kits represented in more physical shops in the course of 2020, both in Denmark and abroad.’
Kit Couture sells patterns developed in collaboration with Marianne Nørbo, Hvass & Hannibal, Lærke Bagger, Sif Pristed and Iben Høj. A common feature of the patterns is that they are all thoroughly tested. A common feature of the materials is that they are top quality.
Could you describe what is so special about working with Iben Høj?
‘Iben’s design is feminine and elegant and has some really sophisticated details, which is underscored by her delicate colourways.
Our collaboration with var was really exciting. The challenge was to combine her experience with the knitting machine and her machine-knit expression with our need to have a pattern for hand-knitting that respected Iben’s design and expression. We did many trials with regard to both technique and fit. We ended up with three models that we are super excited about.
The Lyø blouse in particular demonstrates Iben’s most characteristic design approach, with long, open sequences of yarn in the neckline. (You can read more about Iben Høj here).
Kit Couture er et DIY håndarbejdeunivers. Som så meget andet udsprang Kit Couture af et personligt behov og er drevet af et ligeledes stort personligt engagement.
48-årige Line Rix, som står bag Kit Couture, lavede meget håndarbejde, da hun var yngre. Hun strikkede, syede, hæklede, broderede og filtede. Hun var sjældent optaget af resultatet, men altid meget engageret i processen.
Så kom et CBS-business-studie på tværs og sidenhen job og familieliv, og håndarbejdet blev liggende på hylden.
I 2013 i forbindelse med en familieferie fik hun dog lyst til at genoptage sine sysler og søgte på nettet efter noget, som kunne leveres i en fart inden ferien. Noget, som det ikke ville tage en hel vinter at færdiggøre, og frem for alt noget, der passede ind i hendes øvrige æstetik, noget, som hun havde lyst til at anvende, når det var færdigt. Det fandtes stort set ikke.
Hun begyndte systematisk at undersøge markedet, ikke bare i Danmark, men også internationalt og fandt sporadiske nedslag, men de var ikke mange, og ingen af dem modsvarede helt hendes længsler.
En idé
En virksomhedsidé var dermed født, og i slutningen af 2014, mens hun stadig passede sit fuldtidsjob som CEO i en designvirksomhed, søsatte hun virksomheden Kit Couture. En designbaseret håndarbejdsvirksomhed, som udvikler og sælger broderi-, hækle- og strikkekit.
I 2014 var tanken, at virksomheden skulle være netbaseret, suppleret af et antal workshops eller kurser. Nu små 6 år senere er Kit stadig på nettet, men har også en fysisk butik i København.
Der er 3 fuldtidsbeskæftigede. Line Rix selv, en shopmanager og en designmanager.
Der er 3 deltidsansatte; Rachel Søgaard, som er blevet partner, en, som tager sig af marketing, og en designer. Desuden er der hjælp til at pakke webordrer og en hel flok af hjælpere, som tester strikkeopskrifter og strikker modeller.
Hvilken type af kunde havde du i tankerne, da du etablerede Kit Couture?
”Min tanke var, at vi primært skulle forsyne begynderne, men den tanke reviderede jeg ret hurtigt. Der viste sig at være stor efterspørgsel også efter mere avancerede mønstre og opskrifter.”
Hvor møder i jeres kunder?
”De sociale medier fylder naturligvis meget, men messer og events er også gode rammer for at etablere kontakt. Størstedelen af vores handel sker via vores webshop, helt som jeg havde forventet det, men vi registrerer, at flere og flere kunder opsøger vores butik – især efter at vi for et halvt år siden flyttede til nye, større lokaler, er antallet af butikskunder steget meget.
Eftersom vi har erfaret, at kunderne gerne vil se og mærke, så er planen, at i løbet af 2020 så skal vores kit forhandles af flere fysiske butikker i både Danmark og internationalt.”
Kit Couture sælger opskrifter udviklet i samarbejde med Marianne Nørbo, Hvass & Hannibal, Lærke Bagger, Sif Pristed og Iben Høj. Fælles for opskrifterne er, at de er gennemarbejdede og velafprøvede. Fælles for materialerne er, at de er i høj kvalitet.
Vil du beskrive hvad der er specielt ved at arbejde med Iben Høj? spurgte jeg Line.
”Ibens design er feminint og elegant og har nogle enormt raffinerede detaljer, hvilket understøttes af hendes delikate farvevalg.
Vores samarbejde med Iben var meget spændende. Udfordringen var, at vi i fuld respekt for Ibens design og udtryk skulle forene hendes erfaring med strikkemaskinen og hendes maskinstrikkede udtryk med vores ønske om en håndstrikkeopskrift. Vi havde mange afprøvninger både i forholdet til teknik og pasform. Vi endte op med tre modeller, som vi er superglade for.
Især Lyø-blusen viser Ibens mest karakteristiske designgreb med lange åbne forløb af garnet i halsudskæringen. (Du kan læse mere om Iben Høj her).
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