Endurance in Every Stitch - a window into my developing MA collection

I thought it was time to share with you the inspiration behind my emerging work for my MA in fashion knitwear at Nottingham Trent University.

The collection is inspired by the lives and journeys of Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton, early polar explorers with deep Irish roots. Working at the edge of human endurance, they travelled across the Antarctic in conditions that demanded resilience, resourcefulness, and absolute trust in materials made to survive. Their expeditions were not driven by speed or spectacle, but by persistence — an understanding that survival depended on preparation, skill, and the quiet reliability of what you carried with you.

That mindset sits at the core of what I am developing through my MA and through Detta Knitwear.

Crean and Shackleton relied on materials that worked with the natural world rather than against it. Wool layers, functional construction, and equipment built for longevity were essential to survival. Nothing was disposable, and nothing was rushed. Each object had purpose and weight. These principles closely align with heritage craft knitwear, where fibre choice, technique, and time are inseparable. A well-made knit is not trend-led, but purpose-led — shaped by need, environment, and use.

The landscapes that inform this collection are shaped by weather, isolation, and time. Harsh coastlines, shifting light, and exposed terrain echo both the polar environments Crean and Shackleton faced and the rural Irish and Scottish landscapes that continue to inspire my work. These are places where practicality and beauty coexist, and where making things to last has always been a necessity rather than a choice.

My practice is based in Nottingham, a city with a long and often overlooked connection to the Irish diaspora. From the mid-19th century onwards, large numbers of Irish families settled here following the Great Famine, bringing with them skills, traditions, and ways of making that were shaped by displacement and survival. This history of movement, resilience, and adaptation quietly informs my work. Making knitwear in this context feels layered — rooted not only in landscape, but in inherited stories of endurance and continuity.

As I continue my MA and develop my practice as a slow fashion maker, resilience takes on a contemporary form. I am working within a fashion landscape driven by accelerated seasons, constant novelty, and disposability. Fast fashion prioritises immediacy; heritage craft requires patience. Choosing natural fibres, traditional processes, and small-scale production becomes a deliberate commitment — and an act of resistance against systems that value speed over substance.

There is an endurance required in slow making that mirrors the journeys that inspire this collection. Knitting is repetitive and often unseen. Progress is made stitch by stitch, with setbacks, delays, and moments where compromise appears tempting. Yet survival — whether in extreme landscapes or within modern fashion systems — comes from staying the course and trusting the process.

For buyers, cultural enterprises, and fellow makers encountering this work, the collection is not rooted in nostalgia. It is about continuity. It asks how heritage can remain active rather than fixed in the past, and how Irish craft traditions can move forward while holding onto their core values: durability, honesty of materials, and respect for labour.

Detta Knitwear exists within this space — between past and present, landscape and making, endurance and care. Like the expeditions that inspire this collection, it values the long view, and the belief that what truly lasts is rarely what moves fastest.

If you'd like to keep up to date with how the collection is going then please feel free to follow me on Instagram here.