Acien: Knitwear Along the Routes of Return
Acien is shaped by an understanding of textiles as mobile matter — fibres that travel through landscapes, hands and histories before arriving on the body. Founded in 2023 by Spanish designer Silvia Acién, the knitwear label brings together regenerative agriculture, ancestral craft and contemporary material research, tracing the routes that connect soil, fibre and wear.
From the "Overpopulated World" collection by Acien.
Acién’s approach grows from lived experience. Raised among the greenhouses of southern Spain, she learned early that cultivation relies on rhythm and restraint: land worked with care, harvest followed by rest. This sensibility underpins ACIEN’s material decisions today. Himalayan nettle is sourced through a social enterprise in Nepal; regenerative merino wool arrives from France; pineapple-leaf fibre, Tencel and lotus flower fibre sit alongside esparto dry branches gathered in Spanish mountain regions using techniques taught to her by her grandmother. Each material carries a specific ecology and labour history, chosen for durability, biodegradability and cultural continuity rather than scale.
Sample designs featured in the "Rewilding Textiles, Design for a Regenerative Epoch" Lookbook - LVMH x MAISON/0
Colour functions as both process and archive. Acien’s garments are naturally dyed with plants, frequently using invasive species collected in southern Spain, transforming environmental imbalance into textile intervention. Madder holds particular significance within this vocabulary. One of the oldest dye plants known, madder travelled historic trade routes for centuries, embedding colour within systems of exchange, migration and power — narratives explored in Selvedge Issue 128: Routes. Its use within Acien’s work reconnects knitwear to these deep chromatic lineages, where red is grown, harvested and patiently coaxed from root to fibre.
Rootfull x Acien
This philosophy reaches a material intensity in Rootfull, a collaborative garment developed with bio-designer Zena Holloway. Grown entirely from grass roots and dyed with madder, the dress incorporates silk and hand-stitched esparto grasses to create sculptural structure shaped by growth rather than pattern. Time remains visible in the surface; irregularity is preserved rather than corrected.
From the "Freckle" collection by Acien.
Elsewhere, Freckle, which was presented at Lakmé Fashion Week in collaboration with the United Nations of India, considers sunlight as a catalyst, tracing how light alters skin, plants and emotional states. Acién’s work has also been shown at Kew Gardens as part of Material Worlds, where her material-led approach was positioned within a broader dialogue around plant intelligence, fibre futures and environmental stewardship.
Acien at Kew gardens, as part of the 2025 exhibition, Material Worlds.
Across all collections, Acien works closely with ecologists, farmers and scientists, from bacterial dyeing processes that drastically reduce water use to small-scale production in West London that ensures traceability and accountability. The garments are designed to complete their journey in soil, contributing nutrients rather than waste. This commitment to return situates knitwear within a regenerative framework, where clothing participates in restoration, carries memory forward and remains accountable to the landscapes that shaped it.
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Further information:
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Image Credits:
Lead: From the collection 'Integrated Fight' by Acien.
All further images as credited in photo captions.