Good Omen Is the Sustainable Knitwear Brand Inspired by Sia Lyrics
Into This is a column that highlights up-and-coming fashion designers that the Teen Vogue style team is, well, into. This week, we highlight designer Elizabeth Dran of knitwear brand Good Omen, who creates sustainable sweaters, and explore and how knitting is similar to painting.
Good Omen designer Elizabeth Dran creates knits that are rather whimsical. For example, her “Jardim” pieces, which includes a twinset (there’s a tank and a matching cardigan), a tunic, and a pullover, use a textured, sediment-like pattern that comes from watercolor paintings. Another cropped, short-sleeve sweater takes the same aesthetic one step further, employing a cheeky, abstract image of a pineapple.
Dran’s knits are reminiscent of the creations she made when she was a child. “I used to paint and draw a lot as a child, mostly figure drawing and still lifes,” she reminisces. When she was growing up in New Milford, New Jersey, Dran initially learned how to knit from her grandmother. However, it wasn’t until she was studying at Parsons School of Design that she got into the craft. At the time, she and her friends would meet for a weekly craft night, which resulted in everyone really getting into knitting. “We’d watch movies and talk and knit. I remember my first scarf was huge and so misshapen,” she says.
Later, when Dran started dating the man who is now her husband and began her first job as an assistant designer at American Eagle, she again found herself surrounded by knitters: Her husband’s mother, aunt, and grandmother were all skilled knitters and crocheters. While she was at American Eagle, Dran learned that knitwear design was a separate department, and eventually she started working there as a designer. Simultaneously, she also started a now-defunct handknit Etsy shop and began taking machine knitting classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her work at American Eagle as well as at Ulla Johnson and Nanette Lepore gave her a headstart on learning what it’s like to run a knitwear company. “I knew what to look for in a factory and, you know, what was maybe bogus or a scam,” she says. “I think that’s probably the most difficult thing for a young designer.”
Eventually, Dran realized she wanted to start her own brand, Good Omen, which she launched three years ago. Arising from a brainstorming session with her husband and a partner (who has since left the company), the name connected with Dran’s love of dark things — think horror, ghosts, etc. — and also bright colors. Good Omen seemed to capture the balance of those two things while also speaking to her commitment to sustainable practices.
It took Dran a year to launch her first collection. Before there were products for sale, she started with an Instagram account and hosted trunk shows at her friends’ apartments around New York City. Now, with five seasons under her belt and approximately 15 garments each season, the designer has about 75 different knitwear styles. To fund the line, Dran does freelance work for fashion companies during the day and spends early mornings, late nights, and weekends designing her collections and liaising with factories in Peru and the U.S.
While knitting must be meticulous, depending on the design, the act of knitting is similar to a therapeutic stream of consciousness, much like Dran’s creative process. She obsessively jots down all of her ideas on her phone, keeping track of pictures, sketches, melodies, and lyrics that resonate, usually taking inspiration from a song or a mood and turning that into pieces she hopes will make people feel comfy and special. “I want people to love [these pieces] and respond to them emotionally. I hope I am helping others express themselves through clothing,” she says.
When it came to the inspiration behind her most recent collection for fall/holiday 2019, she explains, “I was listening to a lot of emo pop music over the summer, and I was thinking about how emotional you can be with music and still make a pop-y hit.” Some of her references include music by Panic at the Disco!, the song “While You Sleep” by Boom Forest, and songs by Sia. Regarding the mood of the collection, she says, “This feels like a bleak time for the world...I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. I wanted to dig in and create something real and beautiful because we all need a serotonin hit.”
How does the concept translate through to the designs? In the latest collection, Good Omen’s jacquard Embraces cardigan shows a series of abstract figures in red, yellow, pink, and blue, hugging each other amid geometric patterns, while the Literal Hearts cardigan features a red, grey, and cream-color intarsia of a human heart on the back surrounded by fringe. Some of the designer’s newest pieces mix bright hues in one silhouette, including orange, magenta, and yellow, while others like the Shoreline cardigan are more subdued, using neutral tones and different knitted textures to capture the colors of a coastal sunrise and resembling a landscape painting. All of the cardigans also have vintage buttons, which are one-of-a-kind and handpicked — a small touch that feels intentional just like the rest of her design process.
When it comes to sustainability, Dran says she always had intentions of making an eco-friendly brand. “While I had always wanted to start my own line, I couldn’t justify doing it at the expense of any person or the planet.” Luckily, finding factories with acceptable labor practices has been easy because her business is so small. “I can work with specific artists who are able to spend their time making a beautiful product,” she explains.
Dran makes a point to use sustainable yarns, which means the threads are produced using low-water, cold-water-dyed cotton (which saves water and the electricity for heating the water), and she also uses organic merino wool that is chlorine-free and good for water systems, according to the designer. Occasionally she uses alpaca, which is longer-lasting than similar fibers, plus the mills she works with ensure that the animals are always treated kindly.
Throughout the process, Dran constantly evaluates the environmental impact of raising or farming the materials and asks herself questions like: How is the land going to be affected by farming or grazing? How will the soil and plant life be affected? How are the animals treated? How is the fiber processed? How is it dyed? Does the dye affect the surrounding water supply? What are the pros and cons of using recycled materials?
While in the past she used recycled fibers, Dran found that the material broke during the knitting process and the final product pilled. So she decided to focus on natural and organic materials. For the current season, she worked with a new recycled cashmere and wool and continues to research new and better production practices. Another thing Dran appreciates about knitwear is the small amount of waste, explaining that because she creates sweaters exactly to size there is little to no waste. However, when she does have leftover scraps from fabric swatches she upcycles them into scrunchies or donates them to Parsons and FabScrap, a nonprofit that recycles scraps from fashion companies in New York.
Dran admits, “I’m not a large company and I don’t have a large platform (yet), but I do have the power to make a small difference.” As she’s working on the spring/summer 2020 collection, the brand’s moniker continues to resonate strongly with Dran’s desire to capture a range of emotions through knitwear design: “I see the brand as a good prediction for the future.”
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
