Wilen: Knitting Another Path
Knitting started as a relaxing hobby for Brooke Wilen. She didn’t expect it would become a career until she realized what she didn’t want to do with her life. Wilen previously worked as an assistant to a studio executive at Fox 2000 when she came to a crossroads.
“I knew they were talking about promoting me [to junior executive],” said Wilen, who has been knitting as a hobby for over 10 years. “The entertainment business is a full-time, full-lifestyle commitment. I thought of a life of sitting in an office, and it didn’t seem creative enough.”
At the time, Wilen knit sweaters for herself and sold a few of her hand-knit accessories to co-workers she bumped into on the studio lot. If there was another career path worth quitting her job as an executive’s assistant to pursue, Wilen knew it was starting her own knits collection.
After a period of selling hand-knit items and items made on a hand loom, Wilen officially launched her production collection for Fall 2006. She uses her hand-knitting experience to design knit swatches to show to her production facility in China. Wearable classics, such as a cropped cardigan and knit tank in novelty colors and exceptional Italian yarns, are the strength of the line. “The yarn is so beautiful, you don’t need to do much,” Wilen said.
For Spring, Wilen offers cashmere in airy bodies, such as a pointelle knit poncho and a loose, diamond-weave fishnet-knit bolero. For her more fashionable items, such as a tube dress, buttoned shirt dress and wide-legged knit pants, Wilen uses two colors of viscose/nylon yarn that, when knit together, create an irregular zigzag, striped space dye–like effect. Another novelty fabric in the line is a rayon/viscose/polyester blend knit with a metal component that causes a wrinkled crinkle texture and a reflective sheen.
Wholesale price points start at $55 for a basic tank in viscose/nylon, $120 for a rayon viscose/inox/polyester skirt and $115 for a cashmere dolman-sleeve sweater.
The line has been sold to tastemaker stores such as Milk and Iconology, both in Los Angeles.
For more information, contact Jillian Kirk Sales in suite 1010 of The New Mart at (213) 893-6995.—Rhea Cortado
