During lockdown, Beauty Ties interviewed designer Ruth Herring via email. We are big fans of her work. Ruth designs beautiful knitwear, which has been seen at Fashion Week runway shows in London and Paris. One of her hand knitted dresses for leading British designer JW Anderson also featured in a fashion spread in American Vogue. She has also had 4 books of her work published, including “Knitting Wildlife”, which featured model Marie Helvin on the cover.
BeautyTies: Thank you for giving this interview. How did you start knitting?
Ruth : My mum taught me when I was about 4 years old and my first project was a sleeping bag for my doll. It was supposed to be a dress, but I failed to understand that I needed to add armholes, so it became more of a body bag! By the time I was 7 I was knitting Fair-Isle and I taught myself to Crochet from a book when I was 9.
BeautyTies: What made you turn it into a business?
Ruth: I always wanted to be a designer and started making crochet dresses and ponchos for people when I was about 10. I went to Art College after my A levels and then onto a Fashion degree course. At Fashion college I started specialising in knit and haven’t looked back.
BeautyTies: This year has been a strange one. How have you coped?
Ruth: My knitting and crochet courses had to go online during the first lockdown, which was quite challenging as I enjoy the interaction of classroom teaching. I’ve been very busy working on the hand knits for JW Anderson collections, so I’m lucky to have work that I can do from home. Knitting is classified as Mindfulness, so it’s good for de-stressing, I always have that to fall back on if I have wobbly days.
BeautyTies: At what point did you realise you were successful?
Ruth: Haha, I don’t consider myself to be particularly successful, but I love what I do, so I’m lucky that I achieve a huge amount of job satisfaction. My first book “Knitting Masterpieces” was published by Pavilion Books, which was co-owned by (Sir) Tim Rice and it was their first craft book. The book featured many well-known people as models, including Tim Rice, who unbelievably hosted the press launch party, which was attended by celebrities and the paparazzi. It was quite overwhelming for a young twenty-something me, especially when Bee Gee Barry Gibb turned up with his wife – to-my-party! Oh, to have had Instagram back then!
Ruth: Wow, there have been many and of course I work with 2 amazing brands at the moment – JW Anderson and Katie Anne McGuigan. A young designer called Paolo Carzana also stands out. I met Paolo when he was working on his graduate collection at Westminster University Fashion School. He knew very little about the technical side of knit, but was completely captured by its manual form, complexity and texture. As a Vegan he introduced me to amazing yarns created from Banana fibre, which is normally a waste product once the fruit is harvested. We produced the most incredible hand knitted trousers – the scale was bonkers! There’s a lovely video on my Instagram of a performance artist wearing the trousers – watching this brought back some great memories of working on this wonderful project.
He’s definitely one to watch!
BeautyTies: Who inspires you?
Ruth: My partner and our children.
BeautyTies: If you could tell your 13 year old self something, what would it be?
Ruth: It would have to be the words of AA Milne “You are Braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think”. At school Maths was considered to be my weak subject; there were so many elements that I couldn’t grasp, so found myself falling behind and losing confidence. I have to thank my teacher, Mr Phillips, for sticking by me and getting me through my exam so I could go onto Sixth form and then to Art college. Maths is key to the pattern making process and it’s taken a long time for me to believe that I’m any good at it – of course I am, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to produce such complex designs. It’s all down to application, had I been given a knitting pattern to work out at school, I swear I would have been top of my Maths class.
Ruth: There have been some amazing success stories in the Craft sector over the last few years, so that’s really positive. Most start-up businesses fail in the first 18 months, so you need to be passionate about your business idea and give it your all. Do your customer and supplier research and create a strong, exciting brand that makes you stand out from the crowd. Don’t forget you can’t make a business just selling to your family. Two of my hand knitting students are doing very well selling their patterns; Sylvia Watts-Cherry has a huge following on Instagram @withcherriesontoptoo and sells her patterns to magazines and via her own website and Raimonda Bagdoniene sells her hand knitted bedspreads and dresses via her Etsy shop – Loose Loop. I’m so proud of them. Hopefully the current craft trends are here to stay.
BeautyTies: What’s been your biggest accomplishment?
Ruth: Bringing up my two children – it’s a hard job, but we had really fun times. I’m proud that they have both turned out to be very creative thinkers. They were both living with us during the first lockdown and we had dinner around the table every evening; we played Dominos and put the world to rights. It was a good part of that strange period.
BeautyTies: What’s been the best piece of advice you have been given?
Ruth: I remember having a complete meltdown one day when I was doing my fashion degree. My tutor, Richard Knott came over and said “Ruth, it’s just a frock!”
BeautyTies: If you could design one item for anyone in the world, who would it be and what would you create?
Ruth: I have this dream of collaborating with artist Grayson Perry. I love his ceramics, tapestries and his alter-ego, Claire, so to create something with him in knit would be amazing – it would work really well. He’s a brilliant communicator – I think it’s because he listens, which is a great skill. I thought his documentary All Man, which explored masculinity was extremely moving and sensitive as was his Art Club TV series over the first lockdown.
BeautyTies: What has been your favourite fashion show you have attended?
Ruth: When I was a 3rd year Fashion student the college organised a trip to Paris Fashion Week, which was exciting. It was really difficult to get into the runway shows without tickets, so it became a challenge to get past security at every opportunity. That year there was a real buzz around a young French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, who was showing for the first time, so we were keen to get into that show. Me and 2 friends went along to the venue early and found the backstage door where they were loading in the rig for the show. Using basic French and plenty of charm we managed to persuade one of the roadies to sneak us in and we hid in the backstage loo for 2 hours! Not the most pleasant experience, but we got into the auditorium where we blended into the crowd – hopefully we didn’t smell too bad!! It was a great show and a funny memory.
Ruth: Without doubt it would have to be changing people’s attitude to the wanton destruction of our planet.
Back in the 1980’s I produced my second book “Knitting Wildlife”, a set of knitting patterns designed to highlight the plight of our precious wildlife and their habitats. The front cover had model Marie Helvin wearing a hand knitted suit featuring a Bengal Tiger. I created a realistic image in knit with the Tiger looking straight at its audience; the eyes say it all, majestic but with a hint of sadness.
The book was supported by some amazing people – lovely Michael Palin had just returned to the UK after filming the first in his successful series “Around the world in 80 days”. He kindly wore a sweater with the message “Extinction is Forever!” No more words needed.
Ruth's book 'Knitting Wildlife' with the model Marie Helvin modelling the front cover
BeautyTies: What three things can’t you leave home without?
Ruth: That’s an easy one at the moment – 2 x masks and my hand sanitiser! Pre Covid I travelled everywhere on public transport - most people read or stare at their phones on the London Underground, but I like to have some hand knitting or crochet work on the go. I would often get stares of disbelief as I hooked away, but added to those, some very kind comments about my work. I have a beautiful large vintage leather bag, which is my comfort blanket and big enough to hold a project; so that would always contain 3 essentials - yarn, needles/hook and my trusty Fiskars needlework scissors!
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