FW 24 Update -
DUNNE CLIFF’s upcoming F/W24 collection - ‘TECHNICAL OUTERWEAR CONSUMES ME’ - considers an indulgent appetite for advances in outerwear tech, and a corresponding decay of style rooted in family identity”
From the VFW Website -
Dunne Cliff is an artisanal label that seeks to redefine knitwear. Each piece is one of a kind, hand-crafted by designer Allison Dunne at her studio in Vancouver. Heritage is core to the label, and collections consider topics relating to philosophy, literature, technology, the history of science, and art.
Dunne Cliff's upcoming SS24 collection - 'On the Giants of Shalott' - considers a historic succession of ‘giants’ in science, and our reverence for their enigmatic contributions to Progress. The story of the collection is told through the lens of the cursed dream of The Lady of Shalott (Tennyson, 1832), a figure in a tower down from Camelot, doomed to look upon the world only through a mirror.
Allison is an emerging designer born on the coast and raised in the interior of British Columbia. Her focus is twofold – concept, and quality – and she focuses her craft on traditional techniques. Her family heritage on the Shetland Islands led her to center her label around Fair Isle knitwear, with Dunne Cliff pieces combining traditional elements with idiosyncratic visions. Allison released her first collection ‘On Icarus and AI’ at Vancouver Fashion Week in the spring of 2023, and her work has been featured on CTV NEWS, as well as VOGUE ITALY and VOGUE MEXICO and LATIN AMERICA.
From the VFW Website -
Dunne Cliff is an artisanal label that seeks to redefine knitwear. Each piece is one of a kind, hand-crafted by designer Allison Dunne at her studio in Vancouver. Heritage is core to the label, and collections consider topics relating to philosophy, literature, technology, the history of science, and art.
Dunne Cliff's upcoming SS24 collection - 'On the Giants of Shalott' - considers a historic succession of ‘giants’ in science, and our reverence for their enigmatic contributions to Progress. The story of the collection is told through the lens of the cursed dream of The Lady of Shalott (Tennyson, 1832), a figure in a tower down from Camelot, doomed to look upon the world only through a mirror.
Interview - Oct. 2023
Please share a bit about your journey to embrace fashion design as a career.
I have been inspired to pursue design since very young. My grandfather M. F. Dunne was an industrial illustrator and designer in West Vancouver, and I grew up spending a lot of time with him in his studio. From this, I knew I wanted to be a designer. I pursued the humanities before coming to fashion design because a big part of what I also love is history, philosophy, and critical thinking. Fashion design became a perfect marriage of these two passions.
How did you learn your skills?
I am self-taught on my hand knitting machine, and my mother taught me to hand knit growing up. I learned my drafting and sewing skills from Vancouver Community College's fashion design diploma.
Who are you as a designer? Aesthetic? Customer? Brand?
My design aesthetic is largely motivated by my wrestling with a societal question. I see my work a bit like writing an essay, working out my feelings on an issue, and working to express and share that wrestling with others through story. My knitwear is grounded in tradition, but I also try to push the boundary and take that traditional Fair Isle colorwork into different directions.
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
What comes easiest is the silhouette, the colors, and the fabrics -- the aesthetic vision of a look. What comes hardest is unpacking my direction for a collection, understanding my argument, or my emotions, understanding the message, the story, and what it means, if anything.
I have been inspired to pursue design since very young. My grandfather M. F. Dunne was an industrial illustrator and designer in West Vancouver, and I grew up spending a lot of time with him in his studio. From this, I knew I wanted to be a designer. I pursued the humanities before coming to fashion design because a big part of what I also love is history, philosophy, and critical thinking. Fashion design became a perfect marriage of these two passions.
How did you learn your skills?
I am self-taught on my hand knitting machine, and my mother taught me to hand knit growing up. I learned my drafting and sewing skills from Vancouver Community College's fashion design diploma.
My design aesthetic is largely motivated by my wrestling with a societal question. I see my work a bit like writing an essay, working out my feelings on an issue, and working to express and share that wrestling with others through story. My knitwear is grounded in tradition, but I also try to push the boundary and take that traditional Fair Isle colorwork into different directions.
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
What comes easiest is the silhouette, the colors, and the fabrics -- the aesthetic vision of a look. What comes hardest is unpacking my direction for a collection, understanding my argument, or my emotions, understanding the message, the story, and what it means, if anything.
Where do you find inspiration for new collections? How important is color to your design process?
In terms of color, I am grounded in Fair Isle knitting which is a very colorful medium. I embrace and try my best to push this, because I think it is one of the most beautiful mediums for color presentation. I have family heritage from Shetland, and so I am always inspired to continue this traditional knitting practice.
Readers would love to know more about the current collection you showed at Vancouver Fashion Week.
Do you have a favorite look in this collection?
Where can readers purchase your designs?
My designs from the show will be available for purchase and custom order following the show on October 18th, via contacting me through Instagram @dunne.cliff, and on my website dunnecliff.com. I am also open for custom orders and collaborations external to the show, and would love to hear from you!
I find inspiration in the people around me, and their approaches to technological changes, or things they find exciting. I love to watch people, not for style but for story - what do they care about? What does my generation worry about? What does my parents' generation worry about?
In terms of color, I am grounded in Fair Isle knitting which is a very colorful medium. I embrace and try my best to push this, because I think it is one of the most beautiful mediums for color presentation. I have family heritage from Shetland, and so I am always inspired to continue this traditional knitting practice.
Readers would love to know more about the current collection you showed at Vancouver Fashion Week.
My current collection is called On the Giants of Shalott, and it is about our reverence for 'giant' scientific figures, and their historic contributions to progress. There is a saying by Newton, "If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants..." I am playing with this idea of a dream for innovation, but a dream that comes with a curse -- looping in a 19th century poem by Tennyson called The Lady of Shalott, which depicts a cursed figure in a tower down from Camelot, who is doomed to look upon the world only through a mirror. My collection plays with the idea that we love to perceive these giants as cursed, depicting them in biopics and textbooks and popular culture as tortured -- tortured scientists with cursed dreams.
Do you have a favorite look in this collection?
I don't think I have a favorite look, as I am excited about each piece. However, if I had to pick it would be the final look.
Where can readers purchase your designs?
My designs from the show will be available for purchase and custom order following the show on October 18th, via contacting me through Instagram @dunne.cliff, and on my website dunnecliff.com. I am also open for custom orders and collaborations external to the show, and would love to hear from you!
What's next for you as a designer and your brand?
I'm excited to see what is next!
Links
I'm excited to see what is next!
Links
- Website: www.dunnecliff.com
- Instagram: @dunne.cliff
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