6 minute read
Crochet Couture
Crochet Couture
RACHEL HUGHES THREADS THE NEEDLE ON RUNWAY-READY GARMENTS
By Belle Yennie
As a little girl, Rachel Hughes carried a plastic binder with fashion sketches around her elementary school. Classmates stopped to view her work, asking if she would pretty please share what she designed. Sometimes, the teacher requested a chat with Hughes about the commotion, but the students still needed to catch a glimpse of her runway artwork.
Similar to the students, crowd members today turn their heads and drop their jaws when they see Hughes’ designs come to life out of yarn.
“In those sketchbooks, I would draw the women on a runway because I just wanted my looks to be there,” says Hughes. “Something that I’ve just dreamed about since I was a little girl is really happening.”
Hughes eventually learns her self-taught fashion craft from YouTube and achieves her childhood dream of becoming a designer. However, she doesn’t know how to use a sewing machine. Instead, she crochets every outfit from hand, using 24,000 feet of yarn to create her Heartland International Fashion Week collection. With a fringe and flowers theme, her designs showcase scrunched yarn strands mimicking boa scarves and draping vines on a lily-pad-inspired outfit. Balancing a fulltime job, husband, and two kids, her passion is tough to manage with limited hours. Hughes says it takes her a while to make a single outfit: a week, give or take.
Her crochet journey didn’t always come naturally. Hughes remembers when it took nearly two weeks to craft a single stitch for family Christmas scarves in 2018. The process frustrated her but paid off when she received compliments from family and strangers about her work. Even today, when challenges arise in her crochet career, she repeats her mother’s encouragement to keep going. Instead of only heavy winter clothing, Hughes crafts pieces that last into summer and channel her inner childhood sketches.
“I sucked. I was not getting it. I wanted to just throw it all away and buy a scarf instead of making it. But my mom—she just said ‘stick to it,’” says Hughes. “Once I realized that I could crochet clothes, I mixed my new hobby with my longtime dream.”
As a 2020 New York Fashion Week designer, Hughes’ eye-catching crochet work receives appreciation from models. If the piece isn’t fitting a model correctly, Hughes makes crocheted alterations without the yarn unraveling or starting over. Her internet knowledge of YouTube videos and Facebook group inspirations helps her prepare for alterations and create unique designs. Sometimes she adjusts triangle tops, layered fringe skirts, or the bodice of an outfit. Hughes tailors to all body types and creates friendly relationships with the models. She never knows who will give her a connection to the next big fashion event.
“I’m watching reruns now of Project Runway, like it’s on pause on my TV right now,” says Hughes. “I always wanted to be a part of New York Fashion Week, and for [a model] to give me that opportunity was just amazing.”
Hughes will showcase more of her designs this month at the Critique Fashion Show and the Exclusive Productions Fashion Show, but the pressure is on without the help of additional hardware. While prepping two collections and crafting all pieces by hand, Hughes feels envious of the fast-paced sewing machine designers. With an immense to-do list, she stays organized and carefully maps out what looks she’d like to accomplish each week. She also emphasizes why crochet pieces can be more costly than other handmade clothing items. Other designs can map out a piece, cut fabric, and get to sewing, but Hughes must dedicate additional time to weave her material.
“Unfortunately, with crochet, I don’t have that [fast] luxury. I have to create the fabric myself,” says Hughes. “A hat could be 1200 stitches that you’re creating by hand, working your wrists.”
While a sewing machine can quickly stitch different fabrics, Hughes weaves them during early mornings and late nights when her family is still asleep. Other times, she crochets with her arms wrapped around her 3-year-old son while her 6-year-old daughter hangs by her head. As the children watch Hughes, she can see the way her kids try to understand how the crochet needle works. She hopes to pass on the craft to one of her kids, but even if that doesn’t happen, she wants to be a role model. Hughes wants her kids to see that they can achieve anything.
“Especially since I have children, I would love for them to look at me and say, ‘Wow, look what mom did,’” says Hughes. “‘I can grow up and be whatever I want to be because mom did it.’”
When Hughes isn’t designing for a fashion show, she crafts pieces for her Etsy shop. The online store features bucket hats, beanies, and even necklace accessory pieces. On occasion, she also makes designs for her family, like a rainbow tunic with a unicorn face bodice for her daughter. When she receives custom requests, they challenge her to build something new. One of her favorite customer requests includes a mushroom hoodie with a red and white dotted cap and neutral flared sleeves.
“It was probably one of my favorite pieces I ever did because it’s something I wouldn’t have done on my own. To have that customer push me to do something outside my normal box, that was really cool,” says Hughes.
While Hughes enjoys her uniqueness in fashion, she hopes to see more crochet designers like her reach the runway. That said, she’ll have to compete with upcoming fiber artists. Hughes now prepares to elevate her work from the rest by making each creation more intricate than the last. She looks forward to the challenge and hopes the crochet community can expand its influence on fashion.
“I’m so positive that in the next few years or even months, you’ll start to see a lot more crochet artists joining in these runway shows,” says Hughes. “That’s gonna keep pushing me to do better.”
For anyone struggling with a passion, Hughes says it’s important to never give up. She recalls watching eight different YouTube videos before understanding her first stitch. Even though Hughes’s greatest enemy is time, she still persists against the clock and stakes her name in the fashion industry. With many roles as a mother, wife, full-time employee, and designer, she says it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
“I just really hope that people get inspired to do something that they questioned whether they could or should do,” says Hughes. “If my mom didn’t tell me to just keep going after I got frustrated, then I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today.”
