Folk Fashion: Understanding Homemade Clothes, Amy Twigger Holroyd

Folk Fashion arrives at a moment when making one’s own clothes has become both a counter-rhythm to fast fashion and a quietly radical act. Amy Twigger Holroyd draws on her own experience as a designer and knitter, weaving together maker interviews and academic theory to reveal how homemade garments form a kind of “fashion commons”—a shared cultural terrain where creativity, sustainability and wellbeing overlap. Essays explore everything from the pleasure and challenge of DIY to experimental reknitting, pattern design and the future of folk fashion—treating each stitch as a gesture of resistance and belonging.

Through eight richly illustrated chapters, the volume examines identity, connection and mindful wardrobe creation—illuminating why hand-knitting and mending matter beyond craft, as acts that shape selfhood, community and resource-conscious future. With 37 integrated black‑and‑white images and a concise, elegant style, Folk Fashion is both a manifesto for maker culture and a scholarly reflection on how homemade garments anchor us in place and purpose.

About the Author
Dr Amy Twigger Holroyd is Associate Professor of Design, Culture & Context at Nottingham Trent University and founder of the knitwear label Keep & Share. With roots in both academic research and studio practice, she has pioneered the discourse around fashion as a sustainable, communal practice. In Folk Fashion she brings her dual lens—designer-maker and scholar—to centre homemade garments as cultural material and ethical statement.

Publication date: 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781784536497