Inside the Neo Knitwear Boom

Hanging in the center of designer Kota Gushiken’s showroom in Tokyo is a button-up shirt that, halfway down, becomes a knitted sweater. The style, which he’s named the “Shirmper”, is just one example of the strangely captivating innovation that the Japanese designer employs to create the kooky-minded knitwear that is winning him fans around the world.

“Seven years ago, if I said knitwear, people would think it was just normal knit jumpers,” says Gushiken. “But over the past 10 seasons that I’ve been doing the brand, I think our clients are now recognizing that knitwear can be super free, and people realize, oh, there’s a knitwear universe.”

Gushiken is not an anomaly. Over the past few years, a growing cohort of designers who put knitwear at the center of their creative practice has emerged, challenging preconceptions about knitwear and filling demand for pieces that combine craft with technical innovation.

“A structural shift is happening in luxury retail, as shoppers swap logos and fleeting trends for tactile, long-lasting craftsmanship,” says Krista Corrigan, analyst for retail intelligence platform EDITED. “The value in knitwear is tangible, driven by hand-knitted construction, zero-waste engineering, and high-quality fabrications.”

According to EDITED, full-price sellouts across sweaters and cardigans are up year-on-year for key luxury players: in 2026, knitwear sellouts increased 40% at Loro Piana and 23% at Brunello Cucinelli, while the knitwear category saw “strong gains” across houses including Dior and Gucci, while demand for premium yarns like cashmere has surged, now accounting for a third of knitwear sellouts across luxury retailers.

“There’s definitely a rise in interest around knitwear in general at the moment, both traditional and experimental,” says Nick Tran, head of buying and merchandising for Dover Street Market Paris, who points to Jake’s, August Barron and Doublet as brands who are transforming traditional notions around knitwear with unexpected colors and silhouettes.

Other recent needle-movers include Bangkok-based Nong Rak, Tokyo-based Pillings, a litany of London brands like Raquel de Carvalho, Chet Lo and Pauline Dujancourt, and smaller independent labels like Pickles Knitwear. “There’s really a myriad of choices for customers,” says Tran.

The boom represents both opportunities and challenges. Advances in knitting technology and lower production minimums, combined with a growing appreciation for authentic, “human” clothing, is opening the door for a new generation of designers. But success depends on more than making cozy sweaters: today’s knitwear brands need to stand out in an increasingly crowded market while navigating rising material costs, a warming climate, and a decline in skilled workers.

As consumers pay more attention to fabric, knitwear brands are well-placed to stoke demand. “We are seeing a meaningful shift in the role material and fiber play in the purchase decision,” says Laura Armstrong, head of demand creation at Woolmark. “In our consumer research, fabric composition has moved from the fifth most important purchase consideration to the third, which suggests consumers are paying much closer attention to what products are made from.”

The appeal is straightforward. “I think it’s because it’s honest, you know? It’s hard to hide bad knitwear, you actually can’t fake it,” says Cecile Tulkens, a London-based designer who has drawn attention for her gansey knits that take inspiration from traditional fisherman styles. The sweaters, which retail for £470, have a cropped fit with the brand’s logo knitted across the chest in pointelle — Tulkens’s way of making a sweater that feels both contemporary and historically accurate, but “without looking like a Victorian rat catcher”. They have proven hugely popular, with Tulkens doubling her wholesale accounts to 17 over the past few seasons.

Tran posits that, in the wake of the athleisure boom over the past decade, which has featured a lot of synthetic fabrics, the old-fashioned charm of knitwear feels refreshing — and worth the price. “After the boom of hoodies and sweatshirts, knitwear offers better value and can help you feel more dressed up, while retaining an ease of wear,” he says, adding that knitwear can provide a better value proposition than ready-to-wear. “With everything getting so expensive, knitwear pricing still holds this fine line where you can more easily justify the price, whether that be through 100% natural materials like wool and cashmere, or the craft and techniques that go into making the garment.”

“Knitwear has become one of the most exciting innovation spaces in fashion,” says Armstrong. She points to advances in seamless knitting, Wholegarment technology (which works to “print” knits three-dimensionally) and sophisticated flat-bed machines, with the latter two giving designers more creative freedom. “They can create complex silhouettes, textures and structures with fewer seams, greater precision and, in many cases, less production waste.”

Lower barriers to entry are also attracting designers to the space. “When I first started in the industry [over two decades ago], a 300-piece MOQ [minimum order quantity] was considered really low. Now, 50-100 pieces is much more common,” says Kate Knight, a knitwear consultant based in Bordeaux. But with lower barriers to entry, “the challenge is really standing out and having a compelling product, brand story, and all of that stuff”, she says.

New brands need more than tactile knitwear and a sustainable supply chain to appeal. Knight points to Knorts, a US-based brand that has been worn by celebrities including Bad Bunny and Cardi B, and which marks itself out by knitting denim into stretchy pants and flares. London-based Pickles Knitwear combines craftsmanship with comedy, making sweaters with intarsia slogans that include “Made in Ireland”, “Guinness is good for you”, and “Future MILF”. Ohmu, which was founded in 2021 by Danish designer Lin Routhe, makes use of Icelandic wool, which has an almost wiry handle that becomes more furry with wear. “The wool is exposed to an arctic climate, so it gets this long fiber,” explains Routhe, who lines the sweaters to make them more wearable.

Pillings, a Tokyo-based label that was shortlisted for last year’s LVMH Prize and recently picked up by Dover Street Market London, is popular for its hand-knits, which are made by a community of knitters in Kobe called Atelier K’s. Pillings founder Ryota Murakami estimates that over 100 hand-knitters have worked for his brand. “The initial concepts come from the Pillings team, but throughout the making process, we actively incorporate the ideas, experience, and creativity of the knitters themselves,” he says of the partnership. “Rather than simply commissioning them, we develop each garment together through an ongoing exchange of ideas.”

Collaborations are also a way to stand out. Tulkens regularly collaborates with heritage knitwear label John Smedley, customizing the brand’s polo shirts by pinning them with jewelry from London brand CC Steading to create an asymmetric silhouette. For John Smedley, it’s a mutually beneficial partnership. “Designers bring new ideas, different customer perspectives, and creative ambition,” says CEO Jess McGuire-Dudley. “We contribute manufacturing expertise, product engineering, and an understanding of how to translate those ideas into garments that are commercially viable while remaining true to the designer’s vision.”

By working with designers like Tulkens, John Smedley hopes to demonstrate that British knitwear manufacturing is involved in actively shaping the future of luxury knitwear. “For me, that’s exactly what modern British manufacturing should represent,” says McGuire-Dudley. “It’s not simply about producing garments, it’s about providing a creative platform where heritage craftsmanship and emerging design talent can push each other forward.”

Though there is increased innovation in knitting and more access to updated and better technology, new obstacles have emerged. Italian yarn, the gold standard in the industry, has become more expensive in recent years, exacerbated by economic and geopolitical pressures that span the weak yen to Brexit. “The fact that we’re still using Italian yarns, people are like, ‘Whoa, good for you,’” says Tulkens. “And I’m like, yes I know — it’s actually a nightmare.”

Staffing shortages abound, too. Knight points to a shortage of skilled knitwear professionals, including programmers (“who must program each size separately”) and linkers (“who perform the specialized ‘sewing’ of knitwear”) as a major constraint. And for brands that use hand-knitters, an ageing workforce is a real concern. “Finding ways to pass these techniques on to the next generation has become one of our central concerns,” says Pillings’s Murakami. “I think more people need to know about the profession of being a hand-knitter, and it needs to become a career that people genuinely aspire to.” He hopes his work for Pillings will spark more interest in knitting as a viable career.

Then, there’s the weather. As knitwear traditionally lends itself better to fall and winter, the increasingly hot summers are putting designers under more pressure. “It’s a real challenge,” says Murakami. “As the summers get hotter every year, I feel that the very idea of ‘winter clothing’ is gradually changing.” Garments that once felt completely natural to make, like chunky knits, become increasingly difficult to justify.

At the same time, designers are finding more creative freedom in designing for the heat. “In the winter, your design aim is to keep people warm,” says Tulkens. “I call it the undercurrent of menace, because you have to navigate the winter in that way. Whereas, in the summer, I usually have more fun with choosing colors and fibers because it’s just one layer.”