Every time in Design Stories, a story of leinwände's creation is introduced from the designer’s point of view.
For this article, we will unravel the origin of the brand name and introduce the design story behind leinwände's iconic patchwork.

The brand name leinwände means "canvas" in German.

The inspiration for the name is actually words our designer was told when she was studying Fine Art in London after quite working in a fashion company.

After working in the Japanese fashion industry for many years, the designer moved to London to study art, thinking it would be good to look at something other than fashion.

She has loved drawing since she was a child, and having studied oil painting for many years, so her major at the time was abstract painting and nude drawing.

However, when she first came to London to study, her teachers saw her work, which had been ingrained with the habit of working commercially for fashion brands, and constantly pointed out her for being “nice for better or worse so boring" and "good at research and drawing, but lacking in boldness and passion. which was supposed to be praised in Japan, had become a liability when she crossed the ocean.

One day, nearly half a year later, the teacher told the designer something that she still cannot forget to this day.

"You are a fashion person, so express yourself through your clothes. That is your identity, so use clothes as your canvas."

After going through fashion as a career, This experience made her realize her identity as a person who loves fashion.
She decided to get involved with clothes again. She decided that she would definitely name her brand with any words in any language meaning “canvas".

During the rest of her art school life, she tried painting pictures for assignments on old military uniforms, sewed together vintage scarves and pasted them on canvas, etc.

Also she switched her head from being ticked off after continuously making "clothes for sale,” and started to challenge the process of "making a 'picture' that I want to express into clothes" without worrying about convenience or formality, even if there is only one piece.


This experience is reflected on leinwände today.

When leinwände’s designer creates knit pieces, the first thing she thinks about is "how to create strong contrasts" using materials and knitting fabrics.

She uses different techniques and yarns at the same time such as combining a flat simple knit fabric with a three-dimensional, fluffy knit fabric, and creates patchworks by switching between different knitted fabrics that are cute on their own.

When leinwände’s designer creates knit pieces, the first thing she thinks about is "how to create strong contrasts" using materials and knitting fabrics.

She uses different techniques and yarns at the same time such as combining a flat simple knit fabric with a three-dimensional, fluffy knit fabric, and she creates patchwork by switching between different knitted fabrics that are cute on their own.

She says that when she started the brand, she decided to keep the idea of "patch-working = combining different materials and techniques" as one of the brand’s features, because knitwear allows for expressions like mixed-media without cutting or sewing together.

“If leinwände made original yarns, there would be plenty of options, but that would be boring." This is one of the philosophies of leinwände, which is also considerate for sustainability.

At the heart of leinwände's knit-making is “If the patchwork has an interesting look, that would be alright."
and the designer says that knit wears can be as cute as you want them to be, depending on how you puzzle out the options you have.

For example, just bundling stock yarns and knitting them as one thick yarn can transform them into a new yarn.
She is always experimenting with this, making small knitted fabrics with yarn shops and factories.