Karlijn Woudstra
Senior knitwear designer with a strong focus on luxury craftsmanship and contemporary design. Experienced in designing and developing knitwear collections for womenswear and menswear from concept to production, with particular expertise in fully fashioned knitwear, draping on mannequin, maquettes, fittings and technical development. Hands-on designer with a deep understanding of yarns, stitches, gauges and product construction, combined with a structured approach to research and development. Proven experience working closely with creative direction, development and production teams, as well as mentoring junior designers. Based in Paris, seeking a full-time in-house knitwear designer role within a luxury fashion house in Paris or Milan.
Freelance knitwear women’s and menswear designer working on short-term and seasonal collections for luxury and independent fashion houses in Paris and Antwerp. Focus on knitwear design, research, draping on mannequin and 3D techniques, fittings, and product development.
Led the design and development of knitwear, jersey and woven pieces from concept to final SMS. • Created designs through sketching, draping on mannequin, 3D techniques and maquettes. • Oversaw the full design, development process, including daily fittings. • Coordinated closely with in-house development and production teams, ensuring design vision and quality. • Supervised the creation of tech packs and launch sheets, and followed up on technical development. • Led and mentored a team of junior designers and design assistants. • Collaborated directly with the Creative Director / CEO, merchandising, PR, marketing and styling teams to define and strengthen the design vision. • Gathered vintage and iconographic research, yarn sourcing and colour palette development.
•Proposed knitwear designs focusing on shape, volume and finishings through draping and sketching and creating maquettes. •Gathered iconographic and vintage research to support the collection. •Supported the senior knitwear designer during fittings and design meetings. •Developed stitches and knitwear swatches using domestic knitting machines and crochet. •Designed prints and motifs for jacquard knitwear by using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. •Collaborated directly with the development team by preparing the style sheets for launch.
• Created patterns by using manual creative pattern drawing and draping. • Gathered iconographic and vintage research by going to vintage archives. • Designed tailoring pieces by using sketching and moulage. • Supported the head designer by sewing toiles and mockups. • Designed and created 3 knitted show pieces. • Created new stitches by using a brother knitting machine. • Created the headpieces for Beyonce’s VIP order by using crochet techniques and pattern calculation.
Knitwear design agency, working for clients like: A.F. Van de Vorst, Dirk van Saene, Christian Wijnants, Ann Demeulemeester, Falke, Jan Jan Van Essche ect. • Created the experimental knitwear piece for the exhibition: Dirk Van Saene “Stories Of Hope And Dispair” by using hand-knitting techniques. • Developed knitwear samples and prototypes by working together with several factories as well as creating samples by hand machine knitting. • Designed knitwear and jersey design propositions by sketching and draping techniques. • Sourced new inspiration and concepts. • Created color pallets by using inspiration references and painting techniques. • Developed finishings and details. • Supported the development by making the technical packs. • Designed knitwear jacquards by using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. • Oversaw the in-house prototype development by taking care of the knitwear pattern making, calculation, and quality control.
-Developing knitwear samples -Inspiration and concept research -Finishing and detail research -Creating color pallets -Design propositions -Creating knitwear jacquards in Photoshop -Flat drawing in Illustrator -Knitwear pattern calculation for fully fashioned knitwear -Intern supervision