Between The Lines 007: Experimental Knit
Hands-on Research with Knit Innovator Suzanne Oude Hengel
Words: Siân Toolan
Imagery: Masha Bakker Matijevic, Dana Dijkgraaf & Kliekes
Suzanne Oude Hengel’s experimental combination of knitwear and footwear caught the attention of CONCEPTKICKS® way back in 2015, with her graduate collection ‘LOOP, Coloured Feet’. Since then, she’s become a CK regular, bringing her curiosity to Construct10061 and Sneakers for Breakfast, whilst running her own research-based business. We took some time to discuss Oude Hengel’s journey from graduate to designer-meets-technician and how her focus on knowledge and process has aided innovation in aesthetics, performance, and sustainability..…
Oude Hengel’s fascination with material development began in her studies of Product Design at ArtEZ Arnhem, in The Netherlands. Her early textile experiments with flexible materials, and eventually knit, somehow always resulted in footwear. “Footwear has a lot of restraints, but a lot of possibilities” and her first collection engaged with the varying possibilities of a flat piece of knit in fourteen diverse shoes. Reducing each pattern to a knitted one-piece upper, the collection investigated how to minimise the manufacturing steps of conventional footwear. This intelligent and colourful approach quickly made its way onto our radar, and shortly after, Oude Hengel was approached for a role at Nike.
Fig 1. Work for Nubikk & Personal Research
It’s safe to say, being headhunted by Nike fresh out of design school is an undeniably huge feat, and Oude Hengel remembers that initial excitement well. At the time, she lacked the technical knowledge required for the position and sought out the perfect opportunity to rectify this. The Santoni Pioneer Program in Shanghai connects young designers with the latest knitting technology, training and technicians over two months. Whilst the program intends to narrow the communication barriers between the designer and equipment, Oude Hengel realised that it was the technicians that made many of the design decisions. “There was always a middleman who transfers your design onto a machine”, finding the solutions and problem-solving as she so craved. Learning the language of the machinery, and later programming, she was able to make mistakes firsthand, and learn from them. It is mistakes that birth new ideas or alter the entire direction of a project and that’s the “value in not having that middleman”. Continually pushing the properties of a material and pushing a machine to its limits, Oude Hengel emerged as “a hybrid of a person - a designer and technically skilled”.
Fig 2. Suzanne’s Personal Stoll Industrial Knitting Machine
Following The Santoni Pioneer Program, Oude Hengel began an internship at the TextielLab, part of the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, where she now works as a part-time technician, managing Stoll industrial knitting machines and the latest advancements in textile technology. Alongside this, Oude Hengel runs her own eponymously named business, concerned with “diving deeper into the happy mistakes” of knit and reforming and rethinking manufacturing processes. What’s clear about Oude Hengel’s practice is that it’s less about the end product and more about the joy of getting there. It’s about “really being part of the process”, and knowledge is essential to this. Whilst Nike may have afforded an incredible opportunity, starting her own business has allowed her to focus on explicitly building her body of knowledge, opening doors for collaboration and innovation. Now with a team of four women, based between London and Canada, and her very own Stoll machine, Oude Hengel has consulted and collaborated on an extensive amount of international projects that have the potential to make waves in the footwear industry.
Fig 3. Spacer Research
Oude Hengel’s process begins by hooking onto a material behaviour, delving into research and essentially “designing blind”. There are no sketches, no particular end goal, just hands-on investigation. From a woven upper with Studio Eva X Carola and EEExclusives to a crotchet shoe with dementia sufferer Mrs Heger, her collaborative work engages with the human dimension of design whilst contemplating alternative approaches for the future of fashion. Unconcerned with the commerciality of her work, Oude Hengel has continued to expand upon her graduate collection by minimising manufacturing steps and waste whilst maximising the application of her designs. So far, her instinctual approach has resulted in both self-initiated and sponsored research into seamless uppers, weaving techniques, ribbing and folding lines or inlaying yarns for durability. As part of the Worth Partnership Project, Oude Hengel collaborated with Milou Voorwinden on ‘The Space in Between’, to explore the creation and application of knitted and woven spacers. Spacer fabrics are a three-dimensional textile, composed of layered knit connected by floats, commonly used as cushioning materials. Altering the material or lengths of these floats creates different effects in the fabric that could offer varying levels of support or protection when applied to insoles or midsoles. The technology could lend itself to the personalisation of performance footwear, with “knit soles tailored to the needs of the individual”.
Fig 4. Spacer Research
In ‘Going Circular, Going Cellulose’, a project by Saxion in collaboration with the ArtEZ Centre of Expertise Future Makers, Oude Hengel reunited with Voorwinden, to examine a circular approach to making and how the inherent properties found in cellulose yarns could be used to create folding lines with weaving. With professional sneaker de-constructers Peterson Stoop, Oude Hengel engaged further with sustainable practices in the form of the State of the Art Knitted Sneaker (SOTA). The project proposed a knitted upper, tongue included, that would come out the machine next to complete, with as little waste as possible. Continuing their research, the project analysed the effect of recycled yarns on the end-of-life sneakers, discovering that the lack of strength would need to be compensated within the structure of the knit or with the addition of a second stronger yarn. To design a shoe that is sustainable, durable and true to the pair’s original aesthetics, Oude Hengel invested in thirty development days in making the knitted upper alone. “There’s a small percentage of people that would spend that money”, but the commercial footwear industry needs to invest more money and time into development to see real change. “They don't want to take the risk to develop something new” explains Oude Hengel, and she may just have a solution. In the coming years, she plans to establish a database of samples or programs for purchase. She hopes this would optimise manufacturing, and encourage big brands to be smarter along the way.
Fig 5. SOTA Knitted Sneaker with Peterson Stoop
When it comes to innovation, Oude Hengel doesn’t claim to be making a radical change outside of a commercial standpoint. Nevertheless, she believes that a few years down the line, with her growing knowledge and perspectives on what is possible, she might just “combine it all and push it even further”. After all, it is Oude Hengel’s desire for knowledge and enjoyment of research that has got her this far. Her interest rarely ends with a project - after completing ‘The Space in Between’ she has continued to analyse the use of spacers. Currently, she’s working with the Technical University of Eindhoven to render a visualisation to predict the behaviour of spacers on the inside, both horizontal and vertical. She’s also joining forces with Mattias Börg to design a voluminous upper that employs spacers, whilst exploring sustainable futures in the form of TPU yarn and ultrasonic welding with BAS-F and Joris de Groot. Whilst you can’t get your hands on anything from her dreamy insta-feed, she has just developed a three-dimensional knit structure with Nubikk for a sneaker dropping soon, and we’d recommend you stay tuned for more from her work with Peterson Stoop.
In the long run, Suzanne Oude Hengel anticipates that her business will expand naturally, just as her designs do, and we’re certain she’ll continue to excite us with her innovative knit techniques and conceptual combinations. For a real insight into Oude Hengel’s practice, her behind-the-scenes process work at the TextielLab will feature in their upcoming exhibition ‘Secrets of Making’, opening in June and running for a full year. Whether you can make it or not, her work up until now reveals a well-versed hybrid designer and technician, who has determined her own course, and very well could determine the future of the industry. As she puts it, “I wouldn't say I'm changing the game yet, I'm just getting started”.